Going Crazy
by TheTenthDoctorIsMyGuardian
Summary: Calibri Cooper is a seventeen years old who's obsessed with Doctor Who, and her life is unreasonably mundane. But it all changes when a blue police box shows up in her backyard and everything is suddenly real. Is it all really happening or has Calibri lost her mind?
1. Chapter 1

**Calibri had her headphones on, so she didn't notice her mother entering her room.**

**"Calibri, take those off and listen to me!"**

**Calibri now realized her mother was there, shouting very loudly, and got a bit worried. How long has she been standing there? She was just watching a nasty Doctor Who episode and didn't want her mother thinking that this was bad for her and not let her watch it anymore. Of course, Calibri would watch it anyway whenever her mother wasn't around, but it was still nicer to have permission. Calibri took the headphones off.**

**"Yes, Mom?" she asked as sweetly as possible, trying to keep her mother's eyes away from the paused screen in case she wouldn't like what she saw.**

**"Have you done your homework yet?" asked Calibri's mother.**

**"Yes," lied Calibri. No, she did not do her homework. She didn't like being so irresponsible, but she still couldn't stop wasting her time on stuff like watching Doctor Who, listening to music (mostly Chameleon Circuit or Doctor Who themes) or chatting with people on Facebook about Doctor Who.**

**Calibri suspected she might be a bit obsessed with that series.**

**"Have you played your guitar today?" asked her mother.**

**"No," admitted Calibri.**

**"Well, play now," her mother told her.**

**Calibri actually didn't mind playing her guitar. She just finally got the notes for "I am the Doctor" and was eager to learn to play it. She waited for her mother to come out (she tended to make more mistakes when she was watched) and pulled her guitar out of its case, put the sheet in front, tuned the guitar and started playing. At first the notes came out slow and clumsy, but the song was easier than she thought, and half an hour later she was playing it quite easily. She eventually grew tired of playing and put her guitar back to its place. Well, she actually just put it on her bed because she was too lazy to actually be tidy, but that was enough for her. She came back to her laptop, put her headphones back on and hit the play button.**

**Ten minutes later, the episode ended, and Calibri wiped her tears away. Even though she'd watched it countless times, she still couldn't help but cry when the Doctor said "I don't want to go".**

**She took her headphones off, got up and stretched. As much as she loved Doctor Who, it was still nice to be able to actually move your limbs. She rubbed her eyes. Maybe watching episodes so much hurts your eyes, she thought, but let that thought wander off. **_**I wish I could be the Doctor's companion**_**, she thought, not for the first time. All these nights she couldn't sleep and she imagined what would have been if the Doctor was real and she was his companion. Wouldn't it be wonderful? But that was impossible. Even if aliens did exist, there was still a long way for mankind to evolve before they made contact, and when that happens Calibri might not even be around anymore. But maybe she'll still be around and functioning when space travel becomes available for everyone, and then she'll be able to travel the stars, like the Doctor. The Doctor. How she wanted to know his real, Gallifreyan name. But if that ever happened, the series would probably be over. No new productions this time. Only reruns. And she didn't want that, even if she thought the eleventh Doctor was rubbish and River just confused her more than anything else.**

**Getting bored of sitting inside doing nothing, she took her small blue notebook and a pen and went to her backyard. It was night, and the grass was still a bit wet because it rained a few hours earlier. She sat down on the grass, opened her notebook and started writing. She wrote a nice little story about the Doctor's companions after being left. How it must have felt for each one. Then she tried poems, but she was never very good at that, so she gave up after failing coming up with a good rhyme for the word "space". She was just about to try and write a story about Rory's two thousand years of waiting and watching over Amy when she hears her messages ringtone of the TARDIS materializing. She was about to take her mobile out of her pocket when she realized it wasn't there since she left in on her desk, in her room. So what was she hearing? Wondering if she had completely lost her mind, she looked up, where there was a transparent blue police box, growing clearer and clearer. In a few seconds, a very shocked Calibri was facing the TARDIS. The actual TARDIS. Calibri pinched herself, trying to wake herself. She was clearly just having a very lucid dream. The TARDIS isn't real! The Doctor isn't real! Time Lords aren't real!**

**These thoughts were still running – no, sprinting – in Calibri's mind when the TARDIS door opened and a man came out. He was wearing a blue suit and a long brown coat. On his feet was a pair of red converse. He was skinny and had wild brown hair, and even though he looked very young, his eyes were the eyes of an old man, who had seen so much beauty and known so much horror. It was the Doctor, in his tenth incarnation.**

**The only thing that Calibri could possibly think of at the moment is that when your hero is in front of you, you should probably keep your mouth shut, so she tried her very best holding her jaw from dropping. She wasn't much good at it.**

**The Doctor – the real, genuine, Doctor – looked around for a moment before noticing Calibri standing there with shock written all over her face. You'd expect one to be bothered when one's materializing ship is noticed, but the Doctor expression showed nothing like that.**

**"Hello," he said cheerfully to Calibri.**

**"You- you're the Doctor," she blurted out.**

**The Doctor blinked. "Um, yes, I am," he said, obviously confused. "May I ask how you knew that?"**

**"I, uh…" Calibri tried to think of a way of explaining without sounding like someone who belongs in a mental hospital, which she probably is. "I just, er, you know, um-"**

**"You don't happen to be associated with an alien, do you?" the Doctor asks. "You don't have any friends who look like potatoes, do you? Or metal robots ones? Or… well any inhuman ones?" He pulls out his sonic screwdriver (**_**Oh my God it's the sonic screwdriver,**_** thought Calibri) and started bleeping it at her. "You're not alien, are you?"**

**"No, I'm human…" Calibri mumbles. "I know you because, well, it's sort of difficult to explain, actually…"**

**"Well, figure out a way!" said the Doctor. "How do you know me? I've been **_**very**_** careful not to leave signs I've ever been around!"**

**"Well," Calibri began. "There's this… TV series, a really old one, Doctor Who. It's about… well… You."**

**The Doctor looked stunned. "What? What do you mean about me? How can there be a whole TV series about ME?!"**

**"It's actually one of the most successful sci-fi series there is," added Calibri. "It's my favorite."**

**The Doctor didn't look very flattered. "I don't need to be people's favorite!" he cried out, sounding a bit horrified. He ran his hand through his hair trying to figure out what to do. **_**A TV series about me? I don't need that! **_** Thought the Doctor desperately. **_**Might as well just show up in a spaceship with no escape filled with all my enemies and scream "Look at me I'm a target!"**_

**"Okay, just… uh… Get in here!" he told Calibri and ran into the TARDIS, miming for Calibri to follow. Excited yet worried, Calibri followed, into the last TARDIS in the universe.**

**It was incredible. All these episodes, specials and marathons hadn't been enough for her to really understand how magnificent the TARDIS actually was. It was… Well… Bigger on the inside. And it was also beautiful. Calibri quickly corrected her own thoughts. **_**She.**__**She**_** was bigger on the inside, **_**she **_**was beautiful. She paused to look around but was interrupted when the Doctor showed up of nowhere with a laptop and shouted "Show me!"**

**Calibri stared at the laptop. "You have a laptop," she said.**

**"Well, I didn't, I've just asked the TARDIS for one."**

**"Oh," said Calibri quietly.**

**"Now show me!" yelled the Doctor, and for a second Calibri felt like laughing at his childish behavior. She took the laptop from his hands, sat on the leather chair and started typing around. In less than a minute, she had already found a link to the first episode, "Rose". They watched the first five minutes before the Doctor went storming around the TARDIS, distressed. "There is a whole TV series!" he shouted.**

**"Um, there's also a band, actually, and books. And comics," she remembered.**

**He glared at her to shut up so she did.**

**Suddenly the TARDIS started shaking and the Doctor and Calibri almost fell. The Doctor was only able to keep his balance because of his experience and Calibri was rescued by the chair. The Doctor ran to the console, hitting random buttons while shouting "No no no no what is she doing?!" and Calibri realized that the TARDIS decided it was time she had a trip.**

**Calibri was about to become a time traveler.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A\n: Hey, so, this is the first story I've ever uploaded, so please don't me too harsh. I accept criticism, but if it's past the "your story is horrible" line, please keep it to yourself.**

The TARDIS finally stopped shaking and rattling and Calibri realized they've landed. But where?

The Doctor ran to the door and opened it. Sunlight shone at his face from the outside. Calibri, slowly and hesitatingly, approached him. "Where are we?" she asked quietly.

"I'm not sure," he answered. He turned to look at her. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Calibri Cooper," she answered.

"Well, then, Calibri Cooper, I don't know why the TARDIS took us here, but right now we are going to have a proper chat. This Doctor Who series, what is it, exactly?"

"It's a sci-fi series," explained Calibri. "It's about how you travel in the universe in your TARDIS. About your companions, too. There are actually two productions, the first one was cancelled like fifty years ago, then there was a movie, and after that in 2005, a new production started. The first episode is about your ninth form meeting Rose for the first time. Then there was Martha, Donna, and, funny question: Didn't you regenerate?"

He blinked. "Yes. But then one day I just woke up like that. You don't happen to know how that happened, do you?"

She took a moment to figure things out. "So, you are in your tenth form, which is my favorite, just like that? For no apparent reason at all?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, because that was my confirmation to my last question which was, 'am I going crazy?'."

He gave Calibri a funny look. "So you think I'm not real?" he asked, slightly offended. Calibri almost laughed.

"It can't be real," she said. "I'd wish that all those stuff were real, but they're not! Even you, the way you look. That's just David Tennant, the guy playing you. He's an actual person who had an awesome job and you're just a dream!" she realized she sounded a bit panicked.

The Doctor grins. "Well, I don't know if that's true," he says. "But I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"See what?"

"Whether this is real or you're going to wake up in a yellow room with walls covered with soft stuff."

She couldn't help but laugh. Even if she was crazy, what was the harm of enjoying this marvelous hallucination?

"So," the Doctor went on. "You're saying that basically, every human being on Earth has heard of me."

"Well, pretty much, yeah," admitted Calibri. "Why is it so bad?"

"Well, now every alien who wants to know where I am can turn on a TV and see," he said.

"But… The series has been around for fifty years. Why didn't it happen before?"

That philosophical debate was rudely interrupted by an explosion sound. The Doctor and Calibri ran out of the TARDIS to see where it came from. When Calibri realized where they were, she gasped.

She stepped out on the grass. It smelled like apples. At the horizon, there was a beautiful city that looked a bit like New York City, only far more advanced. There were cars flying in the skies, and the buildings were taller than any building she has ever seen. Around the city was a wide river or ocean, she couldn't quite tell, and there was a bridge leading to the city. Calibri looked around, trying to remember as much as she can of New Earth.

The city's shore was smoking and Calibri guessed that's where the explosion was. She couldn't quite see anything but smoke.

"What was that explosion?" she asked the Doctor, curious and intrigued.

"I'm not sure," said the Doctor. "It could be just building… Something regular that was supposed to happen… But it doesn't feel right."

"Time Lord thing?" Calibri asked, remembering how the Doctor can feel what was meant to happen and what wasn't.

The Doctor nodded. He turned to her. "Calibri, how old are you?"

"Seventeen," she answered.

"Well, I need you to stay in the TARDIS for awhile. I'm going to see what that thing was and if it goes wrong I don't need you getting yourself killed on my watch."

She snorted. "Yeah, right. I met the Doctor and now I'm gonna sit in the TARDIS and wait while he goes off investigating cos I'm too young. I'm going with you whether you like it or not."

He sighed. "Calibri, please don't argue," he said, sounding somewhat tired.

"Nope, you're not getting rid of me now," she said smiling.

"Calibri, stop arguing and go to the TARDIS. She'll keep you safe, I don't want to put you in danger."

Calibri raised her eyebrow. "Well, it's not your decision to make," she said determined. "I'm not your responsibility and I'm not a child. I can make my own decisions, and if I say I'm willing to take a risk, then you have nothing to do against it."

"You're not even an adult yet!"

"Oh, please. I'm only two years younger than Rose when she started travelling with you," she looked at him angrily. "I'm not asking you to take me as your companion; I'm not that kind of a person. I don't force myself on people. So when I'm saying I'm not staying in the TARDIS it's not because I'm forcing you to take me with you, it's because I want to see what's out there, too. This is the planet New Earth, billions of years in my future. I'll never see anything like that ever again. So no, I'm not going to stay in the bloody TARDIS when I can go and live a little!"

The Doctor stared at her, a little taken aback by her shouting. She reminded him a bit of Donna. And if she was like Donna, then he definitely had no chance to talk her into staying. He had no choice at all. "Okay, fine," he gave up eventually. "But I'm being extra careful with you!"

Calibri rolled her eyes. "Yeah, as if that ever worked for you," she mocked him.

The Doctor couldn't help but think she was quite rude. Then again, so were many teenagers her time.

Calibri didn't even wait for the Doctor. She started running to the bridge, looking around her happily. Her anger disappeared as quickly as it appeared, and she was fascinated by the beautiful city. She just ran straight forward, like she used to when she was a little girl. The Doctor followed her, highly aware of how that girl in front of him was only seventeen years old, and she was probably going to be in great danger because of him.


	3. Chapter 3

Calibri was running along the bridge, excited. The Doctor ran after her, trying to keep up without having to actually run. He wanted to save his energy in case running would later be necessary for their survival. And for him, it usually was.

"Wait up!" he called, but Calibri completely ignored him. These beautiful, amazing sights fascinated her. She has never seen anything as incredible as New New York. She could almost hear a Doctor Who soundtrack playing. "I am the Doctor" would kind of fit in, she thought, but that was the eleventh Doctor theme while she was with the tenth. She ignored these thoughts. No, no complicated thinking now. That kind of thinking wouldn't let her concentrate on the actual views. So she silenced her thoughts and enjoyed the pure, childish excitement running through her veins, in her blood.

When she finally reached the end of the bridge, she stopped to wait for the Doctor. She was surprised it took him long, because in the show it always looked like things were going a lot faster than possible in real life. But… was it really real life? Waiting for the Doctor, she decided she wanted the complicated thoughts back again. She suddenly felt scared. What if she had lost her mind? What if she was going to get put in a mental hospital? She'd never been to any mental hospital, but movies never made it look very nice. She never tried it before, but getting electrocuted didn't sound so fun.

And… there was another alternative. That she wasn't crazy. That this was all real. Somehow, she thought that this alternative could be much worse than the other one. You can't die in a hallucination. But you can definitely die in real life. What if something dangerous is around? What if she got hurt? What if she died? No one would ever know. Her family, her friends. They will always be wondering. Always looking. She was so selfish, disobeying the Doctor and going with him! How could she be so stupid? She saw what happened to everyone who had ever travelled with the Doctor! Even those who were safe and sound in the end never were the same person again. And people would notice if she changed! Her mother, her best friends, they know her so well, they would notice the tiniest change! What would she tell them? Even if she told them the truth, they would never believe her. They all loved Doctor Who just as much as she did, but… they would think she's mad. She'd get locked up. She-

"Calibri?" the Doctor's voice shook her out of her trance.

She quickly looked up at him, realizing her head was down this whole time. "What?" she asked.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concern in his voice.

She nodded, a bit surprised. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "you looked a bit… out for a while."

"Oh!" she realized what he meant. She smiled. "That's nothing," she explained. "Just got lost in thoughts and getting lost in thoughts having ADD sometimes makes you look like you're retarded." She realized she was being weird (as always) and shut up. She didn't want the Doctor to think she was weird.

But he nodded, understanding. "Okay, then," he said. "Are you sure you don't want to go back to the TARDIS?" he asked one more time, mainly to clear his conscious.

She rolled her eyes. "I've _told_ you," she said. "I'm not missing that for the world!" And her grin was wide on her face again, all her fears forgotten, just like that, covered by thrill.

He sighed. "Let's go then," he said, defeated, and they continued, walking this time, not running. Even though Calibri tried hard to cover her worry, the Doctor noticed something in her eyes, and he felt concerned. He was so mad at himself for letting that girl on the TARDIS. What was he thinking? Of course the TARDIS decided to randomly go somewhere, that's what always happens! And how could he let her come with him? She's only seventeen, she can't be that determined. He can make a teenager stay somewhere. Why didn't he, then? He knew why, of course. Because he was so selfish he couldn't be alone. He just always had to take someone and risk their lives just so that he would be a little less lonely. And Sarah Jane did have a point. Were his companions just getting younger and younger? So far, Rose was the youngest, but he never thought a seventeen year old would ever end up on board of the TARDIS. But he also never thought Rose Tyler would be stuck in a parallel universe with his human duplicate. He never thought Captain Jack Harkness would find himself immortal and eventually die in New Earth as a telepathic big face. He never thought Martha Jones would end up being married to Mickey Smith and work for UNIT and Torchwood. He never thought Donna Noble would have to lose her memory. And he never thought Rory Williams and Amelia Pond would be dead because of him.

He'd never get used to it, he thought. Every time he lost a companion, it broke his hearts all over again. He wondered if that was his faith. To just keep getting hurt because of his selfish mistakes. Was it his price for all his sins? Of course he saved so many people, but what about the Time Lords? He killed them. He killed them all. His own kind and they're all dead because of him. It sometimes felt like every person in the universe dies because of him.

He suddenly realized they were very close to the explosion site now. They weren't close enough to see much, but he could see enough to know that this was no planned explosion. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

"Something's wrong," he told Calibri.

"Yep," she answered with a grin.

He blinked at her. "How can you be excited about this whole thing?" he asked, confused. "You were taken away from your home billions of years into the future, you're on another planet with someone you've just met and now something's wrong! And you're enthusiastic!"

She snorted. "Oh, you're one to talk, Mr. look-an-evil-living-plastic-dummy-that's-so-cool," she said laughing.

He seemed confused. "When was that?" he asked.

"With the Nestene Consciousness," she answered, remembering. "That was the first episode. You were all, 'fantastic!' whenever you almost got killed."

"Oh, yeah," he remembered. He chuckled. "I was middle-aged!" he laughed, thinking of his ninth incarnation.

Calibri laughed, too. "And your _ears_!" she said.

The Doctor seemed slightly taken aback and touched his ears self consciously. "What was wrong with my ears?" he asked defensively.

"Are you kidding me?" asked Calibri, still laughing. "What wasn't? They were _huge_!"

"Oi!" the Doctor protested. "No past self mocking!"

Calibri rolled her eyes (again). "No need to get offended," she said, still smiling. Then her smile vanished. They were right in front of the explosion site now. She recognizes the burn marks.

"Doctor, is that…" she whispered, horrified.

"Yes," said the Doctor, rage in his eyes. "Daleks."


	4. Chapter 4

"Daleks," said the Doctor, rage in his eyes.

Calibri felt like her head might explode. Every single fact she knew of the Daleks was running through her mind like a flashback reminding her of what they are and what they are capable of. The lack of emotion, the pressing need to kill, the indestructible metal body, the cruelty. All these thoughts were running through Calibri's mind and resulted in one thing only: Fear.

"Calibri, don't argue with me, just run, go to the TARDIS," the Doctor said urgently. "Just run to the TARDIS and wait. I'll be fine, just go!"

Calibri seriously considered running but a tiny voice of logic shouted in her mind over the horror. "I'm a slow runner," Calibri blurted out. "Running wouldn't help me now, not if the Daleks are still around, they'll get me, they'll shoot me, and they'll kill me-" Calibri noticed she was rambling but she didn't care. She only wanted to get out of there, to safety. She regretted arguing with the Doctor earlier. If she would have just stayed she wouldn't have been in such danger.

The Doctor was about to protest when another explosion was heard. It was very close to them, and the Doctor and Calibri fell to the ground, thrown by the power of the explosion. Calibri felt like she was twelve years old again when she had a concussion. Her vision became a big blur and all she could feel was panic. Living and vivid panic, making her want to scream her soul out.

The Doctor, who was already on his feet, was trying to pull Calibri up. Calibri could see him mouthing her name but she could hear nothing. She was more afraid than she has ever been in her whole life. She could vaguely remember feeling the exact same way back when she had that concussion, but even memories appeared to float away.

The Doctor kneeled besides her and looked into her eyes. He placed his finger in front of her eyes and moved it around. He didn't seem to like the result. He was saying something and his expression showed that it was important, but Calibri couldn't hear him. Or maybe she could and her brain didn't register it. Whatever the reason was, the Doctor was now screaming her name desperately, trying to get her to respond in anyway.

All of a sudden her hearing and vision came back to her and she found herself getting screamed at by the Doctor.

"Calibri!" he shouted.

Calibri now fully registered the situation and hurried to get up on her feet.

Big mistake.

She fell, head spinning violently. The Doctor caught her and steadied her. "Calibri, are you alright?" he asked worryingly.

Calibri blinked. "Yeah, I'm fine," she mumbled.

The Doctor frowned. "No, you're not fine," he said. "You're stuck in the future on another planet and there are Daleks!" he sounded angry. "You weren't even supposed to be here but no, you had to say, 'Oh, yeah, you're the Doctor, I know all about you cos you've got a TV series', and I had to drag you to the TARDIS, and the TARDIS just had to go here with a teenager on board-"

Calibri slapped him across his face. The Doctor looked shocked. "What was that for?" he said, surprised.

"Shut the hell up!" Calibri screamed, furious. "Yeah, we've got Daleks blowing up New Bloody Earth and your stupid ship decided it would be fun to see! Yeah, I'm seventeen! Yeah, we're all probably gonna die! But right now, you're the only one who has any chance of saving this planet so you're going to shut up and kill some idiotic Daleks!"

The Doctor stared at her, shocked by her shouting. "You're a bit aggressive," he pointed out.

"Well, poor you!" shouted Calibri. "You've got yourself an ADD girl and I'm usually the quietest person around but if you get on my nerves I promise you hell! And right now you've pissed me off with your, 'No, I don't want you here, you're seventeen, go wait in the TARDIS because I can't promise you safety, stop arguing cos you're just a stupid little girl'! Well, I don't care! I don't care how old I am, I don't care I'm not supposed to be here and I don't care about my bloody safety!"

All the Doctor was able to say was, "You remind me a bit of Donna."

Calibri rolled her eyes. "Who do you think I've picked that up from?" she asked, forcing a smile. She didn't like being the yelling kind of person. She hated it when people yelled at her and really didn't want to be like that. But sometimes she just couldn't help it. When she was very tired, or when something big just happened, something like the Doctor showing up on your back yard and accidentally taking you to New Earth.

"I have to go find the Daleks," said the Doctor, pulling Calibri back to reality. "Now, stay here. If you can't go back, at least stay here. They've already passed this spot and chances are they wouldn't go back here. So just… Please, _please_ stay and don't make a mess."

Calibri sighed. "Fine," she mumbled, hating herself the moment the word came out. What was she doing? That was her chance! She could finally go on an adventure with the Doctor, like she always dreamt of! How could she give that up when she was so close?

The Doctor started walking away towards where the last explosion was. Calibri thought about her options. As she saw it she could: A) Stay there like a good little puppy and hope neither her nor the Doctor got themselves killed. B) Stubborn up and go with the Doctor anyway. And C) She could wait for a while then follow the Doctor secretly just to make sure he doesn't end up needing saving.

After considering for a very long period of ten seconds, Calibri finally settled on option C. Sure, she wasn't exactly the saving material, but neither was Rose but she ended up saving the Doctor's life with the Nestene Consciousness.

She waited until the Doctor was completely out of sight, and then hurried after him. She stopped at a deserted street's corner and carefully glanced to where the Doctor was heading. She could see him, not very far yet since she ran and he walked. She couldn't help but wonder why he was walking. There are Daleks around; he doesn't have time to waste. It's almost like he… Wanted her to follow.

Then Calibri understood and felt very, very frightened, even more than before. Of course he knew she would follow! He knew humans, he knew they're naturally curious, and she told him she had ADD which would also mean she was impulsive! So he realized she was going to follow… But why would he let her? Why didn't he just take her if he wanted her to come? Maybe… The Daleks were watching. Maybe she wasn't just hiding from the Doctor; she was also hiding from the Daleks. But how do you hide from a Dalek?

Calibri looked around her, to the skies as well, remembering their ability to hover. She couldn't see anything, but that only made her feel more scared. Then she noticed something behind her. Not a Dalek, but a dead body. Calibri felt her stomach twist. She had never seen an actual dead body except for in pictures or TV, and she didn't like the way Death looked like. But she noticed the dead man was wearing some sort of uniform. She went back the way she came to examine the body. She was no expert, and she wasn't sure about the man's origins, but he had a gun so he was probably a police officer or something like that. But what Calibri had in mind except for the dead man's job, was his gun. She could take the gun. Use it against the Daleks. But the Daleks are Daleks and she's only Calibri. A tiny little bird against a raging creature born to kill. Still, as much as the Doctor would disapprove, it was better to be a little bit armed than not armed at all. She gently pulled the gun out of the dead man's pocket. She felt guilty for taking the gun. Then again, she thought, it wouldn't be much use to him anymore.

Calibri put the gun in her jeans' pocket. The pockets weren't all that large so the half the gun was visible, and Calibri pulled her T-shirt down a bit to hide it better. She knew the Daleks would be able to see it even if she covered it with cement, but it still made her feel a bit safer, somehow.

Now armed, Calibri walked towards the last explosion's site, looking around her constantly just to make sure she wasn't being watched.


	5. Chapter 5

Calibri's steps were very slow and hesitant. She was scared out of her wits and could hardly stop herself from running away screaming. How the hell was she supposed to help the Doctor beat the Daleks? It was all too real for her. It's all fun and games when it's just something on the screen, where you only scream with laughter and crying over someone's death makes you feel better for some reason. But this wasn't fun and games. In real life you scream with fear and cry with agony. And you never feel better.

Calibri glanced at the gun in her pocket. She wondered for the millionth time in five minutes if she could really do that. Win a Dalek in a shooting match. _Of course not,_ she thought quite miserably. _I have exactly zero training with a gun. They have one teeny tiny weak spot. I can't even beat one, and who knows how many of them are?_

Calibri tried shaking these thoughts away. She didn't know for sure since she didn't have any experience, but being afraid would do her no good. Some people said fear sharpens your senses, but for her it just meant that crying may become a very likely possibility. She was never really much good at, well, anything. She always made a mess out of things, always got stuff wrong. Or at least, that's how it felt like. It seemed to her that the only thing she was ever any good at was dreaming, but that's not very practical is it? What was she supposed to do, dream the Daleks to death? But maybe she could imagine another way out of this. A way that doesn't involve her and the Doctor getting killed, or a way that Calibri had no chance of ruining. She needed a way to survive what was going to happen in several minutes, assuming she ever gets there. But where could she find such way?

A sudden thought struck her. Her friends. They would never know what happened. If she died that day, they would never know. Screw her family. There was only one place she truly belonged and that was with her friends. And if she died then they would never know. Would they think she ran away? No. They wouldn't. They knew her and they would know she would have said goodbye. Maybe if the Doctor would make it out of there alive, she would have a chance of asking him to tell them. They would believe, wouldn't they? They knew her. They knew she had a habit of getting into situations she couldn't get out of. Only that this time, if she doesn't make it out it isn't just a bad mark on a math test. It's death.

Calibri stopped suddenly. She took a deep breath and did something that was probably incredibly stupid. She closed her eyes and counted. One, two, three, four. While counting, she concentrated on the numbers as hard as she could, pushing any other thought away. Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. It was some sort of mini-therapy thing she found online years back. It was supposed to help you calm down when stuff get really really wrong, the way they did now. Twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty. Calibri opened her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. The counting always helped her somehow, even thought she was rubbish with numbers. She usually used either the counting or writing, but she left her notebook behind, back home, in her backyard, billions of years ago, billions of miles away.

Calibri took one last deep breath before deciding it was time to stop being scared. It wasn't time to be afraid, it was time to be brave and save the world. Or at least, help the Doctor save it. Or at least try really hard to mess everything up as always. She secured the gun in her pocket and started walking again, this time more confident, less shakily. _I can do this,_ she thought. _I can save the world._

The Doctor was slowly walking down the empty street. He had only just met Calibri, and he really wanted their meeting to never have happened, but right now, she was possibly the only chance to defeat the Daleks. He wasn't quite sure about what he was going to do, and he also wasn't at all sure that Calibri was going to do as he hoped, but even though he knew this girl very briefly he could tell she was stubborn. And even though she was definitely scared she was also curious. And she was an adventurer. He didn't know her, but that was very easily seen. He didn't know what he was going to find when he reached the explosion site, but whatever it was, he trusted Calibri to help him. He had no idea why – he had just met her – but something about her made him feel that she could be trusted. Is that the same thing that makes people trust him, the Doctor? People always seemed to trust him even if they have just met him, and it was the same now. Whatever it was, maybe Calibri had it too.

He reached the street's corner. He dared to glance back. He didn't see her whole body, but he managed to get a glimpse of Calibri's brown curls before they disappeared behind a corner when she quickly hid. Clever girl. She knew not to let anyone see her, not even the Doctor.

He returned to face the street's end. There was a wall in front of him, but there was a turn to the left. Behind that turn was the explosion site, and who knows what he would discover once he crosses the corner. He took a deep breath and took the turn.

Calibri stared ahead of her, horrified again. When she saw the Doctor was turning to look at her she hurried to hide because she has seen every single Doctor Who episode ever made, and she knew she couldn't take chances. It might not even be the Doctor; it could be a clone or a Tesselecta or something like that. Or something she hasn't seen before. Of course, she knew it was the Doctor, but she has never been more careful in her whole life.

She saw the Doctor leaving the street and tensed. She didn't hear anything, no one shouting "Exterminate", no shooting, no screaming, and no more explosions. But it was a very long street and she was quite far. She had a quick look-around before moving on, running. _You should probably save your breath,_ said a tiny voice of reason in her head, but she pushed it away. _An unreal person landed in my backyard in his unreal TARDIS, took me to an unreal planet in an unreal time, and we saw unreal explosions caused by unreal aliens, _she thought. _ And now I'm supposed to help that unreal person stop the unreal aliens, and all that because my subconscious thought this was a nice hallucination to start my time as a schizophrenic with. Screw reason._

She kept on running, ignoring that stupid voice of reason. She reached the street's corner and she stopped, just like the Doctor did. She didn't actually know _why_ she had stopped, but the Doctor stopped earlier so maybe it was somehow important. Deciding that it was probably not, Calibri once again secured her gun and took the turn.

Calibri opened her eyes. Everything was a strange blur. _Oh My God, am I dead?_ She wondered anxiously. _Did I get shot by a Dalek and die? I don't want to be dead! I can't be dead!_ Calibri was panicking. She tried to remember anything that would clarify that she isn't, in fact, dead, but the last thing she remembered was taking that stupid turn at the end of the street, which didn't calm her much. Then again, she couldn't remember being shot either.

She blinked several times to see clearly and looked around her. She recognized the room the moment she saw it. It was all sort of brown and dirty, but she's seen it before. It was the room the Face of Boe was in all these years after the plague caused by the 'Bliss' chemical occurred. She remembered how he stayed in that room with Novice Hame the Cat Woman, kept the city functioning, right about, using his own life force. But how did she get there?

Suddenly she heard a voice. Well, 'heard' wouldn't quite explain it. It was more like something was talking to her inside her mind. A telepathic voice.

"Hello, Calibri," said the voice.

Calibri turned around reflexively and saw him. The Face of Boe, once known as Captain Jack Harkness. She might have already seen the Doctor, the TARDIS and New Earth, but she felt like she couldn't stop being surprised.

"You- I- How did I-" she stuttered unimpressively. She paused and tried forming a sentence again. "How did I get here?" she asked hesitatingly.

"By me," said the Face of Boe, as if that explained anything at all.

"Why did you bring me here?" asked Calibri, truly curious.

"You were going to battle with a merciless enemy," said the Face of Boe. "But you were not ready. You needed help, guidance."

Calibri could hardly stop herself from snorting. "Hell yeah, I needed help. What am I supposed to do? The Doctor just threw me into the deep, Dalek ridden water and expected me to do something without even telling me what to do!"

The Face of Boe is silent for several moments, and I suspect that he is mentally laughing at me. "Calibri Cassidy Cooper," he said. "You have so much yet to learn, but you will do so much good."

Calibri blinked. "What do you mean? And how did you even know my middle name? I don't tell people my middle name because I don't want them realizing how many C's I actually have in my name." She was rambling again, but she didn't care. It was a rough day, and she needed a good ramble.

The Face of Boe ignored her question. "You must help the Doctor," he said.

"How?" asked Calibri desperately.

"You will know when the time will come," he answered.

"Wait, you mean… You mean I need to help him with something else? Not the Daleks?" she asked.

"The Dalek is merely your first challenge," he said. Calibri noticed how he said 'Dalek' instead of 'Daleks' which gave her a slight relief. She knew one Dalek was enough to destroy the universe, but it was still easier to fight than an army of Daleks.

"There are more challenges to come," continued the Face of Boe. "And you must stand them all, or the universe would come to its end. Time, space, and everything in existence would fall into chaos. All that ever happened would be erased and everything that exists would stop. Civilizations would die, worlds would be perished and everything would burn. The destruction would leave no survivors and would know no end. The darkness would rule, and then even that would be gone. No light. No darkness. Nothing at all. And you must stop it."

Calibri was shocked. "But… I can't! I can't do anything like that! I'm not brave, I'm not clever, I'm not strong, I'm nothing! I'm absolutely nothing! I-"

"The power would come," promised the Face of Boe. "As would he."

"He?" Calibri asked, confused. "Who is _he_?"

"It is your time to return," said the Face of Boe, sounding somewhat sad. "But know this: You must not tell the Doctor of our meeting. He would never know you were gone, but you may not tell anyone you had seen me. If you do so, it would bring horrible consequences for all."

"No, wait!" shouted Calibri, but her eyesight was blurring all over again. She suddenly felt weakness wash her and her knees could hold her no more. She fell to the floor, exhausted. "Wait…" she mumbled, "I don't understand…" But she couldn't complete the sentence as her eyes were forced shut and everything went suddenly dark.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry, I didn't write for quite some time, I got really busy with this art project. I'm doing a Chameleon Circuit songbook plus drawings! The drawings are pretty terrible since I can't draw, but I add these tiny quotes from Doctor Who under them so it looks like I tried. Anyway, next chapter's here:**

Calibri opened her eyes and felt very, very dizzy. She got up shakily and looked around her. Where was she? It looked like some sort of an old warehouse or something. But what was she doing there? She remembered passing out, probably because of the Face of Boe, and then she woke up in this warehouse. But why did the Face of Boe bring her here?

Calibri looked for a door or a window. She couldn't find any actual doors, but there was a small gap in one of the metal walls. She slowly got closer to it. It was dark inside the warehouse and the light coming out of the gap hurt her eye at first. Behind the wall there was a big sort of traffic square. It was deserted, and if it wasn't for the generous amount of burnt down cars scattered around it Calibri would have thought it has been deserted for a long time. But the ruined cars were there. They weren't the kind of cars Calibri was used to seeing back home, they were bigger and had no wheels. They had no windows Calibri was able to see and it looked like a big metal box. But knowing the episode "Gridlock" practically by heart, she knew these cars could fly and could go on for at decades without needing to stop for gas. She searched the square for any sign of the Doctor or the Dalek. It took her some time, but eventually she saw the Doctor, but he was all tied up. There was no visible sign of a Dalek. Calibri tried to understand the situation. The Doctor wasn't dead, which was kind of nice, but he still wasn't really in a fighting position. She wondered how come he was alive. If he would have seen a Dalek, he's be dead by now, that's for sure. And how could he be tied up? Who tied him? Maybe the Dalek has some pig slaves or maybe those strange Dalek-humans with the eye stalk in their forehead. Calibri felt like her head may explode. The situation was so ridiculously insane she felt like laughing. But that urge had passed very very quickly when she felt the cold barrel of a gun on her left temple.

"Who are you?" said a woman's voice. She sounded scared, and even though she was holding up a gun to her head Calibri couldn't blame her.

"My name is Calibri Cooper," said Calibri as steadily as possible. "I-I don't mean you any harm, please put down the gun." Calibri's attempt at bravery had failed miserably and horror was very much clear in her voice.

"Where did you come from?" asked the woman.

Calibri tried to turn to her, but the mysterious woman wouldn't let her.

"I-I'm not from here," Calibri tried. "If you could please put down the gun, I swear I'm not going to make any troubles, please just put down the gun…" Calibri had felt tears in her throat and couldn't help but be angry with herself for wanting to cry. But those frustrating tears still came to her eyes and fell on her cheeks.

Even in the dim light, the woman seemed to have noticed. She slowly put down the gun. Calibri felt relief wash over her and she turned to face the woman, wiping the shameful tears away. She had messy blonde hair and green eyes. Some of her hair was sticking to her face which was shining with sweat. Her clothes were dirty and torn in several places, and overall she gave a very neglected impression. But what Calibri found the most important thing about that woman was her very pregnant belly.

"What are you doing here? How did you get here? Who are you?" asked the woman demandingly.

Calibri started over. "My name is Calibri Cooper. I'm not supposed to be here, I came here by accident. It's complicated. My, uh, friend has this ship sort of thing, and it took us here, but it wasn't supposed to. So we came here, and then we heard an explosion and my friend told me to stay behind but I wouldn't and then we realized there are Daleks and now… Well, now everything is a bit crazy."

The woman looked at her, not quite sure if she could believe her. "Your friend," she said, anger slowly leaving her voice. "Where is he?"

"He's tied up over there," said Calibri. "I don't know why."

The woman put the gun on the floor. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Seventeen," answered Calibri.

"Where's your family?" asked the woman.

"They're… Far away," answered Calibri, now somewhat sad. "So very far away. Where is yours?"

The woman shrugged. "It's just me," she answered, then put a protective hand over her swollen belly. "Just us," she added with a small smile. She gazed at her belly for several moments before turning her look back to Calibri. "I'm Violet, by the way," she said. "Violet Murphy. I'm sorry for holding a gun up to your head, it's just… You know. What's happening can make a person a bit edgy. This friend of yours, what is his name?"

"The Doctor," answered Calibri. "Just the Doctor," she added at Violet's questioning expression. "It's odd, I know, but that's his name." _Well…_

Violet nodded. "Do you know what's happening?" she asked. "Why did the Daleks come here?"

Calibri sighed. "I don't know. They just want everything that isn't Dalek dead. Do you know how many are there?" Calibri thought there was only one, but Violet said Daleks in plural.

"Only one now," said Violet. "We fought at first, there were so many dead, but we've managed to take most of them down. There were five at first, but two thousand dead soldiers later it's down to one."

Calibri felt dizzy. _Two thousand dead? And that's just the soldiers. The Daleks killed innocent people as well, how many?_

"How long have you been here?" asked Calibri. "What is this place anyway?"

"It's a warehouse," said Violet, pointing out the obvious. "I don't know, a week? Hard to tell. I haven't been sleeping much since I was too busy watching out for Daleks and I stopped counting the days because it no longer meant anything." She seemed suddenly puzzled. "Although…"

"What?" asked Calibri.

"Well," Violet hesitated, "it's just that… I think I've been here for eight days which means…"

"What? What does it mean?" asked Calibri.

Violet paused and looked to the ground, and then she looked up again to face Calibri. "The baby is due today," she said. "I'm going to give birth today."

The Doctor was tied to a pole in the middle of what appeared to be the remains of a traffic square. When he took that turn to the square he couldn't see any Daleks, but he could definitely see some Cybermen. Considering the situation, the Cybermen weren't such good news. Although, they didn't kill him or try to convert him, which was a bit reassuring. But the Doctor couldn't stop trying to understand why he was still alive. Once he gave that up, he remembered Calibri. He knew she was right behind him, but where did she go? He hoped she was alright. Even if so far she wasn't much use, it was still better if she was in one piece, maybe hiding somewhere safe. There was also the possibility that the Daleks or the Cybermen had got to her and had no interest in keeping her alive as well, but the Doctor tried not to think about it. Feeling even guiltier than usually really wouldn't help at the moment.

He looked around the square, trying to find a way out of this mess. He could find nothing, but he could see a glimpse of an eye behind a metal wall. He felt a wave of relief wash over him when he realized it was Calibri's eye (his superior Time Lord senses made it easy for him to be sure), but he wondered how she got there. He also wondered what she was going to do, considering the fact that he can't do anything except for maybe arguing with Cybermen or Daleks, only that it would probably bring no good. He felt so desperate, so helpless. So… _human._ He would have kept on thinking of ways the human race was below him, but then the Dalek came out of nowhere. Well, not really out of nowhere, since that was impossible, but his appearance came by surprise.

He tensed as he saw it. It looked like an ordinary Dalek, no fancy colors or anything. The Dalek wheeled across the square painfully slowly, as if to make sure he is seen. The Doctor glanced at where Calibri was standing and saw her eye focused on the Dalek. His eye sight may have been good, but not enough to see anymore than that eye. Still, even just an eye is better than nothing at all.

The Dalek has finally reached him. His eye stalk was lowered a bit, and the blue light in the end of it grew more focused. "You are the Doctor, enemy of the Daleks," said the Dalek, the light bulbs on his head flashing at every syllable. "You must be exterminated."

The Doctor ignored the last part. If the Dalek was going to exterminate him, he would have done it by now. He had no idea why or how, but for some reason this Dalek didn't want to kill him as much as every other Dalek. "How did you get here?" he asked. "You're supposed to be dead."

"The Daleks do not posses such information," answered the Dalek with cold, metallic voice.

That took the Doctor by surprise. "Wait, so you don't know?" he asked, confused. "You don't know how you're alive? But- You had to know what you were doing to come back and- Wait… You're actually saying that, you didn't come back to life because of your own will? Something… Something _forced _you to resurrect. Who would do something like that?" The Doctor was having a very confusing day. Forget the fact that he's got his own TV program, he just found a Dalek who doesn't want to kill and doesn't know something!

"You must be exterminated," said the Dalek again.

"Why don't you just shoot me, then?" asked the Doctor. "You're stalling! Now what are you doing that for, stalling? What, do you need to buy time for something? Nah, you're a Dalek, if a problem would turn up you'd kill it, what is it then? Why am I not dead yet, hmm?"

The Dalek moved around uncomfortably. "You must be exterminated," he repeated.

"So you keep saying, except that you do nothing! So why don't you shoot?"

The Dalek just stared at the Doctor for several moments, until apparently reached a decision and said, "Exterminate!"

"Today?" Calibri repeated, shocked. "What do you mean today?"

"I mean that the baby is coming, _today_," said Violet nervously.

"But…" Calibri tried to find a way this wasn't going to happen. "But how can you be so sure? Aren't these stuff really hard to predict accurately?"

Violet looked confused. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "It's always extremely accurate."

Calibri almost slapped herself for not understanding. "Future tech," she muttered to herself. New Earth is able to cure every single disease in existence, why would they not be able to predict child birth? She sighed and paced around the small room, wondering what the hell they were going to do. They needed to help the Doctor, destroy the Dalek, save the planet, and oh, that's right, Violet's going to go into labors any second! They had nothing, nothing at all, to help them. Just themselves.

Calibri exhaled slowly. She turned to face Violet, who looked anxious. "Violet," said Calibri. "I know what we're going to do."

"What?" asked Violet.

"We are going to get to the Doctor," said Calibri. "We are going to free him, then the three of us are going to find a way to destroy the Dalek, then we are going to save New Earth. And you know what we are going to do then?"

"What?"

"We are going to make sure your baby is safe. You got that? Your child is going to be alright, and you are going to be alright, and every stinking danger that still exists in the world can go to hell." She grinned, determined. Violet couldn't help but smile, reassured. Calibri went to the gap and looked out. There, the Doctor was still attached to that pole. He looked at her, noticing her there. But wait… Calibri had seen the Dalek. Calibri saw the Dalek, the creature of pure hatred, violence and terror, and she looked right at it.

She was no longer afraid.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Okay, so when I finished writing this chapter I got really pissed at myself because it was so short but I couldn't really find a way to make it longer without taking lots of time, and I have already not updated in awhile since I was on a three day trip to the middle of nowhere (nowhere has lots if mountains and my foot can no longer move). So I'm really really sorry but you know what? It's my fic so I get to do whatever the hell I want.**

Calibri watched the Dalek advance towards the Doctor, but she didn't feel afraid. She didn't quite understand this courage. There was absolutely no reason for her not to be scared out of her wits. There was a Dalek, and it was there, and it was approaching the Doctor. So basically, the situation was, in fact, scary. Why wasn't she running around screaming?

The Dalek reached the Doctor and Calibri saw them talk. She couldn't hear what they were talking about but she wondered why the Dalek didn't just shoot.

"What's going on?" asked Violet behind her.

"I don't know," said Calibri. "The Dalek's there and he's talking to the Doctor. Not shooting him, though. I don't know why. Now shhh!"

Calibri looked through the hole impatiently. _They're just talking! _Thought Calibri, frustrated. _And here I was thinking Daleks were, I don't know, __**dangerous**__._

Then Calibri realized the light bulbs on the Dalek's head weren't lighting and the Doctor wasn't talking. What was happening over there? After what seemed like forever to Calibri, the light bulbs on the Dalek flickered four times for four syllables. Her eyes widened. Four syllables. The word 'exterminate' had four syllables. Calibri watched as the Dalek shot at the Doctor. For one millisecond every single cell in her body was screaming. Then she saw that the Doctor was unharmed, and the rope holding him to the pole had fallen to the ground, torn. The Dalek had released the Doctor! But why?

"EXTERMINATE!"

The Dalek shot at the Doctor, and the Doctor flinched, expecting pain, but felt nothing. He looked down and saw that the ropes were released. He looked up at the Dalek, confused. "You released me," he said. "Why did you do that?"

"You shall serve a superior goal," said the Dalek.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed as he stood up. "What Dalek goal is more important than my death? You've done so much just to try to kill me, and now you just refuse and opportunity to do just that? Why? What do you need me to do?"

"You shall assist the Dalek race," said the Dalek.

"Yeah, I got that part," said the Doctor. "Blimey, you're stubborn. How am I supposed to help you?"

"You shall help us find the female," said the Dalek.

"What?" the Doctor didn't like not understanding, and right now he understood absolutely nothing. "What female? Who are you after?"

"We want the young female," said the Dalek, "whose name consists of a bird."

The Doctor's narrowed eyes widened with realization. A young female whose name consists of a bird.

Calibri.

"What's going on?" asked Violet impatiently.

Calibri didn't look away from the Dalek and the Doctor, who was now standing freely. "I don't know," she mumbled. "The Dalek released the Doctor, and he's fine, but I can't really figure any of it out."

Calibri felt helplessly confused. She never knew much. She was never any good in school. She considered just dropping out of high school, but she was too close to actually just be done with it so she stayed. She sat in her chair every day and tried, she really tried. So why couldn't she? Why could she never do anything right? Nothing ever worked out as well as planned for her, it all got messed up in the end. The rare good days she had were always followed by the bad ones, where she had hyper-attacks at the worst times, she couldn't listen to practically anything, and she forgot things. Thousands of meaningless thoughts raced through her mind but none of them was important. She wrote stuff on her hands, the ink later causing the skin on them to crack. She got so bored. And she was desperate to understand. Just understand something, just one thing out of all the things she heard. The Doctor always said that everyone was special, that nobody was ordinary, and that everyone was meant for greatness. And she tried to believe in that so hard. But some days it just didn't work for her. Some days she just didn't know why she even kept going at all. Things were so, so-

"Calibri," said Violet's nervous voice, shaking her melancholic thoughts away.

"Not now, Violet," she said dismissively and rudely. Calibri was always quite rude to grownups that weren't old or family. She once laughed at someone she just meant because she found his mustache funny, and could never really keep her mouth shut, eventually causing her to accidentally insult people she didn't even know.

"_Calibri_," said Violet again, and Calibri noticed a trace of urgency in her voice. She turned around, already knowing and dreading what she was going to find.

Violet was slightly crouched in pain and she was leaning on one of the dirty metal walls. Violet's eyes were facing the ground, but when Calibri turned around their eyes met. She looked very scared. "I think," Violet managed to say behind gritted teeth. "I think the baby's coming."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: So, hello readers. I've been getting a lot of great reviews and followers lately and it's brilliant. It's honestly, downright brilliant. You guys are the best.**

**This chapter is going to be a tiny bit different because I did a lot of stupid stuff I don't know how to fix. I'll figure it out, eventually, I hope. There is a possibility I won't and in that case you guys will have a fic that makes no sense while I will go put the Hat of Shame on. I don't have a Hat of Shame, but if I can't fix my own story I'm gonna get one. So, I really really hope that useless brain of mine would get to work sometime soon…**

_When I was thirteen years old, I got scared._

_My sister and I were both scared._

_We were just about to go to sleep. I turned off the light. It was a hot night and we kept the door a little open so that we'll have air. We both lay in our beds, and we talked, the way sisters do. And then the door slammed._

_I remember screaming. I got so scared, just for a moment, and then it was gone. It was late at night and we woke up our parents. They got mad at me for screaming. They thought we were playing a game. We were only thirteen. I couldn't explain why I screamed. They would only laugh._

_Except that out room's door never slammed unless someone slammed it, and we were both in our beds the whole time._

_I came back to bed, where my sister was waiting for me. We were both terrified. We stayed up half the night, imagining the worse. We listened carefully to the weakest sound, looked carefully for the smallest sign of anyone or anything that could be in our room. We were that scared._

_We fell asleep eventually. We were so tired. The next day we joked about the night we had, pretending it was just children's play._

_But we never truly forgot, and it was years before we went to sleep without thinking of that night._

_It was the first time I was truly afraid in my short life. But the second time was so much worse._

_My sister and I were fifteen. It was just an ordinary day. We woke up, went to school, came back home. Everything was just as it was always. My ankle hurt that day. I always had troubles with my ankle. It wasn't serious, but I exaggerated. Our parents were both at work, and our mother called and said one of us had to take the trash out. We hated that task. The closest trash bin wasn't all that far, but there was an awful lot of stairs we had to use._

_It was my turn to take the trash out. My sister did it last time, I should have taken it. But my ankle hurt, and I exaggerated. I promised my sister I would take the trash out twice. She believed me. Or maybe she didn't, I don't know. But she took the big black plastic bag and got out. _

_I heard her scream. I remember hearing that terrible scream and recognizing my sister's voice. I ran, I ran so fast. I didn't care about my ankle, I just ran. I remember seeing that stupid plastic bag on the ground, but my sister was nowhere. I searched the whole neighborhood, and she was nowhere. I tried calling her. She didn't answer. Eventually I found her mobile phone near the plastic bag, in a bush._

_That was the second time in my life I was truly afraid, and this time my sister wasn't there to protect me._

_I called my parents. Told them what happened. They came in five minutes flat, panicked. They searched her; too, even though I told them it was useless. I already searched everywhere. I searched better because I knew all her secret places from when we were just little girls. But they didn't listen and they looked for her anyway. They couldn't find her, either._

_They called the police. After what seemed like hours, the police officers decided she ran away and she threw her phone and the plastic bag to make everyone think differently. I tried to tell them about the scream I heard but they didn't believe me. They had no reason to believe me, and I don't blame them for it. I had a history of imagining things. It never really stopped for me. But even when I was imagining things I could tell they were not real. I simply did not want to. I liked it, being special, seeing things nobody else could. But I never imagined something as horrible as that blood freezing scream._

_I lost my sister, forever. She never came back. Everyone thought she ran away. She just got into a big fight with our parents. They thought she left us. But I knew she didn't. She would never run away. And she would never, ever leave me._

_She wasn't just my sister. She was the only connection I had left to my home. My sister and I lost our parents when we were just babies. We can't remember anything. We were both adopted when we were six. We didn't think we were ever going to be taken out of the system because everybody wanted babies. But we were. I always thought that out adoptive parents lost a child around our age. Not typical for a six year old girl to think so, but we were both alone for so long. We grew up too quickly. We never got our childhood back. And my sister never will._

_My sister is dead._

_Her name was Canary. Canary Carrie Cooper. Our adoptive parents let us both keep the last name. I think they thought we should remember where we came from. Our birth parents named us both with names that begin with C. I don't know why because I never had anyone to ask. Maybe it was so that we can find each other. There aren't that many people named Canary Carrie Cooper or Calibri Cassidy Cooper. But it didn't help. In the end, my parents' final act to protect us was for nothing._

_I miss her every day._

_It's been over a year since I last saw her. Her bed is still in our room. I don't like being in our room anymore because it reminds me of her. I only ever go there when I have to, or when I'm sad. When I miss her so bad it hurts I lie down on her bed and cry. The pillow still smells like her, but every day it smells more like me. Soon I wouldn't be able to feel her scent at all. It would just be a pillow._

_My name is Calibri Cassidy Cooper. My sister's name was Canary Carrie Cooper. This is my diary. I'm turning seventeen tomorrow. It's not my first birthday without her, but we were expecting our seventeenth birthday. Canary used to say seventeen is the perfect age to do what you want, because you're still a child and you don't have the responsibilities of adults but you weren't a child either, so you were also allowed to do more. I believed that, but now I think she was wrong. I don't feel like I'm not an adult yet. Missing your dead sister… I thought I would only have to miss her when I'm old. I thought she would die happily at old age. But she didn't. She died as a child. It was supposed to be me. It was my fault she died. And I'll never have a chance to tell her I'm sorry, and that I love her._

_I'm only writing this down because I feel like I have to. I can't tell anyone. They'll think I'm crazy. My parents don't like to talk about it because it makes them sad. I don't know what's worse, knowing your daughter is dead or thinking she left. I think they still hope she would be back. I can't tell them she wouldn't. It would break their hearts._

_I don't like the way writing all those things feel. I just want to forget all about it. Pretend I never had a sister in the first place. I don't want a diary. I'll just write my stories here. Canary always said I was a great writer, but I never took it seriously. I started writing when she died. It felt like I was remembering her that way, using my fiction._

_I hope nobody finds it until I'm dead. I don't want anyone to be sad because Canary died. It's better for them to have hope that someday she might come back. I know I would want that hope._

_Well… That was it, I think. Nothing else I have to write. I don't really know how to end this, so I'll just stop writing._

When Calibri went to her backyard to write stories, she took her diary. When the Doctor came and took her away, she left the small blue notebook behind. She didn't think about that notebook until she came back and realized it was no longer there. She wondered who took it. She wasn't there to see the blonde man in black clothes who was there that night. Nobody saw him. But he found the notebook, and he read it. He read it all. As a sad smile appeared on his face, he took the notebook and left, just like that.


	9. Chapter 9

**A\N: Okay, I know, I know, it's been two months since I posted a chapter. I'm sorry, I really am, but there is a perfectly legitimate excuse for that! I was working on something else! For a 56 hours course! Which I have completed and now I'm really proud of myself and my teacher on that course who's awesome said to me when I said goodbye, "I'll see you again, somewhere on the first page of the newspaper." Which in his language was the same as: "You'll be something great." And now I'm really flattered because that's pretty much the best compliment I ever got. Plus, I turned my nine year old little brother into a Whovian, so I had episodes to watch with him (he's rubbish at subtitles). AND my aunt gave birth to a really tiny really cute little baby girl who scares the hell out of me, but all babies do.**

**Here goes!**

"You're kidding me, right?" asked Calibri. "Please tell me you're kidding."

"Who would lie about something like that?" asked Violet between contractions, which to Calibri's awareness were getting more often every time, and way too quickly.

"Well, some people might!" protested Calibri, thinking of Amy in the dream made by the Dream Lord.

Violet dropped to the floor with pain as another contraction hit her. She tried her best not to scream, scared that the Dalek might hear her.

_Dammit, _thought Calibri. _What do I do, what do I do?! _As most seventeen year old girls, she didn't know how to deliver children. The Doctor might know, but there was no way of getting to him. There was no one to go to for help.

And there were no pain killers.

There were no doctors in case something got wrong.

If something bad happened, Violet and her baby would both die.

And Calibri was fully aware of that.

"Alright, alright, just…" she sat down besides Violet. "Just breathe, we'll figure something out, okay?"

Violet nodded, her hair clinging to her sweaty face.

Calibri looked around helplessly, desperate to find something, anything, that could get them out of there alive and well. She stopped and stared at a wall. She didn't know why she found that particular wall so interesting. It was grayish, made of stone. It seemed quite solid. But there was really nothing about it that made Calibri understand why she was still staring at it. Something about it… Felt a bit… Different… Like something's gonna happen with it…

Calibri shielded her eyes even before the wall exploded into tiny rocks. Violet wrapped her arms around her belly protectively. A cloud of dust rose into the air and Calibri was grateful she had no asthma. The last thing she needed now was bloody choking. She looked back at where the wall was, even thought she knew what she was going to see.

It was the Dalek, staring at her with his metal blue eyestalk. The Doctor stood next to him, looking a tiny bit freaked out.

As awful as the whole situation was, Calibri was still happy to see the Doctor. It was surprisingly easy to accept his existence, and she knew she had no chance to stay alive without him around. Rose could, and Martha could, and Donna could, and Amy could (sort of), and Rory could. But she was no companion. The Doctor only took the best, and she was accidentally swept with him. She needed his protection.

"Doctor, she's in labors," cried Calibri, going straight to the point and ignoring the Dalek. It could wait. Birth was more important than death. It had to be.

As if to help her make her point, Violet moaned in pain and doubled over as yet another contraction hit.

The Doctor seemed a little bit more freaked out than he was a few seconds earlier, but did nothing. _Oh, great_, thought Calibri. _The Doctor's scared of the big bad Dalek. Now what is Violet going to do? Give birth on her own?_

"You are the female I require," spoke the Dalek with cold, metallic, emotionless voice that sent shivers down Calibri's spine. "You shall follow."

"Are you serious?" asked Calibri. "She's _giving birth_. With all your evil Dalek technology and knowledge and weapons, you're still nothing more than a stupid pepper pot." And then the first part of that sentence seemed to finally get to her. "Hang on, what do you mean? What do you need me for?" she asked suspiciously. "If you have any plans of making a pig slave out of me I'm warning you, I'll be one angry pig."

"I follow orders of non-Dalek authorities," said the Dalek.

Now that just made no sense at all. "But you're a Dalek," said Calibri dumbly. "Your only purpose is to destroy all non-Dalek life forms, not follow their orders."

The Dalek taken a tactical choice of ignoring her. "You shall follow, or the Oncoming Storm will be exterminated."

"What?" protested Calibri, while the Doctor just looked around, puzzled. "What the hell is that for?"

"Records say you do not wish the Doctor to be exterminated," replied the Dalek.

"What records? How do you even have records of me?" asked Calibri, while Violet couldn't stop a scream. "I'm not even a companion, it's my first and only trip. Who sent you anyway?"

"You will follow!" said the Dalek again, and Calibri had a feeling it was losing its temper, if Daleks even had temper.

"No, I won't," answered Calibri firmly. She took the gun out of her pocket.

The moment the Doctor saw the gun in her hand he seemed alarmed, if he wasn't already before. "Calibri, what are you doing with that? How did you even get a gun?"

Calibri ignored his protests and aimed the gun at the Dalek's eyestalk. The Dalek was unimpressed.

"Calculations show you will miss," said the Dalek calmly.

"I'll miss the eyestalk, yeah," agreed Calibri as she loaded the gun. "But I wasn't thinking of shooting the eyestalk." She pressed the gun at her own temple.

"Calibri, stop it!" shouted the Doctor. "What are you doing?!"

Once again, Calibri ignored him. "Listen, Mate," she said to the Dalek. "I don't know who sent you and I don't know what the hell you need me for. All I know is that you do need me for something. Now as I see it, you've got two choices. You let the Doctor help Violet, that's the woman _giving birth _over here in case you were wondering, and then I will come with you. Or, you make one move, I pull the trigger, and you don't get what you came here for. And don't think I won't shoot. Death doesn't scare me." She felt her voice grow to shouts of anger and was surprised at the tears in her eyes. "I have nothing to lose! I have no future! My sister, the closest person to me, is dead! I never done anything good in my life, anything important! But right now I can give my life for someone else, and that's a good way to die. Much better than I deserve so DON'T. TEMPT ME!"

The Dalek stared at her for several moments, probably wondering what to do next. Eventually, his eyestalk was lowered to look at the ground, which made it look like it was giving up.

"Doctor," said Calibri, finally acknowledging the Time Lord's presence. "Go take care of Violet. Do me a favor and save her and her child."

The Doctor nodded silently and hurried to Violet's side. Calibri glanced at them, then back at the Dalek. She wondered why this was so easy for her, putting her own life in danger just to save a stranger. It was nice, though, to know that she was capable of doing something good. Of getting something right.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So I decided to put the next chapter up sooner than usual, mainly because I feel guilty about abandoning it. It's also shorter than usual, but you guys can take it.**

Calibri winced a bit as Violet's screams grew louder. She didn't dare looking back, not knowing what the Dalek might do if she looked away from it. But what she heard made her believe this was going to be a quick but painful one. Violet's screams were loud and quick. She started swearing about the same time the Doctor made a comment about seeing the baby's head.

Calibri really had no idea what she was thinking threatening to kill herself, but it worked, so she decided to just be happy for doing it. Calibri wasn't really going to pull the trigger. She had no intention of dying. Sure, her sister may be dead and she might not have any idea what she was going to do with her life once she graduates, but that didn't mean she wanted to die. She felt a little bad about letting her fears out into the world, saying them aloud. She never wanted to be that kind of girl who wastes her life feeling sorry for herself. She'd rather move on, get over whatever the hell happened and keep on living. Complaining about it sure isn't going to do any good no matter how much she complained. Her tears wouldn't change a thing. Better to get up, lick your wounds and try winning the fight anyway. She liked thinking like that. Definitely better than curling up in a corner and cry.

But she was still quite proud of herself for aiming that gun at her own head. Violet will live and her child will live. They will both live. The Doctor will be alright, he's got the TARDIS, and then, once she knows everyone are safe, she'd go with the Dalek quietly and wouldn't make a fuss.

_Except that the Doctor will never just leave,_ said that damn tiny voice in the back of her brain.

Of course, it took her quite a bit to figure that out, having all that adrenaline in her blood. But it was true. The Doctor will simply refuse to leave, even if Calibri got the Dalek to not shoot him on the spot. He'll have to go and be the hero and attempt to destroy the Dalek on his own.

Calibri wondered why she didn't trust the Doctor to be able to destroy it. All these people he saved, and she still didn't think he could kill this one Dalek. Maybe it was because she knew about the people he lost. Most people didn't. They never realized the Doctor lost many before, so putting their lives in his hands was so much easier. But she knew that sometimes, not all those who have fate in the Doctor survive. Sometimes they die. And Calibri could become one of them. And if there was one thing she knew, just one thing, it was that she didn't want to die. And she didn't want the Doctor to remember her as more guilt on his hearts, more blood on his hands. He has enough of both. She didn't want the Doctor to have to live knowing he failed to save a seventeen years old girl. But either way, that's the price he would pay. It would be worse for him if he left her. He'd feel even guiltier. But the Doctor could die if he tried to help her. If the Doctor died, nobody will be around anymore to save others. So many people die when the Doctor isn't around. She had to keep him alive.

Violet let out a long, loud scream, cut by the crying of a baby, and I finally dared to look behind me. Violet's face was covered in sweat and her blonde hair was a complete mess. There were dark black circles under her eyes and she looked like she had just been through hell. But even after going through all that pain and all that horror, she was crying with happiness and joy when she saw her son take his first breath of life. Calibri couldn't help but smile. It's amazing how something that happens every day and is nature's most natural event it still seems so magical every time. The Doctor, who was holding the baby, now handed him over to Violet who took him happily. The mother cradled her son in her arms and laughed as tears of joy washed her dirty face.

But that moment only lasted a moment, as Daleks really don't care about the miracle of life. "The inferior female is safe," said the Dalek. "Now you must follow!"

Calibri nodded and dropped the gun to the floor, kicking it aside. "Alright then," she said faintly. "Let's go."

"Calibri," mumbled Violet softly.

Calibri turned to look at her. "What?" she asked at the same tone.

"Thank you," whispered Violet. "You saved our lives."

I smile sadly. "Don't thank me yet," I said and followed the Dalek as it went.

The Doctor hasn't budged from where he was sitting.


	11. Chapter 11

"Where are you taking me?" asked Calibri.

The Dalek ignored her completely and kept moving forwards next to her.

Calibri exhaled angrily. She could handle following a Dalek across a deserted planet, but she at least wanted to know where she was going. She still didn't quite understand any of what was happening. But out of all that craziness, there was one sentence playing over and over again inside her head.

**The Doctor is real.**

It was just impossible in so many ways. How could nobody ever notice this earlier? How come all the things that happened in Doctor Who never happened in real life, like the Nestene's attack over the world or the Sontaran. There were people killed in both of these events, and the bloody sky was on fire. How could nobody remember something like that?

But still, there it was, she saw it. The Doctor, the TARDIS, New Earth, Daleks… All of it. It was real.

You know, unless she was insane.

It was a possibility. Insane people never knew their hallucination were hallucinations. Her knowledge of mental illnesses wasn't all that great, but she was pretty certain at least one sort of crazy included very vivid dreams.

Or maybe she was in a coma. They say you have really vivid dreams when you're in a coma. At least that's what she ended up reading. Maybe she got hit by a bus or something and started dreaming of her favorite TV show.

Calibri felt frustrated. Not the usual 'why does my math teacher keep torturing me' sort of frustrated that usually got away after a good laugh or a locker kicking session or maybe yelling at someone she didn't really like. It was the pretty bad sort of 'what the bloody hell is happening I don't get a single thing I think I'm gonna die at some point of this day just what the freaking shit' frustration. And that frustration had its price.

"Listen, Mate," she said, voice raising with rage. "It's been one hell of a day already without you leading me on to the unknown. If you can't give me some valid information then what's the point in you, you big bloody pepper pot?"

The Dalek didn't seem to mind her fussing.

Calibri was getting really pissed. She picked up a rock from the ground and threw it at the Dalek with all her force, not even making a dent, but attracting the Dalek's attention. It stopped suddenly and looked at Calibri. "I have been informed you may resist arrest," it said calmly.

"Informed by who?" asked Calibri. "Who sent you?"

Silence.

"You can't expect me to just follow a Dalek into what would probably be my death, do you?" asked Calibri. "Tell me something!"

"My superior has informed you shall not be harmed," said the Dalek.

"Then what am I needed for?" asked Calibri, hardly relieved.

The Dalek said nothing, and that was when it hit her. "You don't know, do you? You're just as uninformed as I am!"

"I am not required to hold further information," said the Dalek.

"Right," said Calibri bitterly. "What the hell, then. Lead the way." She glanced behind her, wondering if the Doctor would be there. There was nothing. She sighed and kept on walking.

They both walked in silence for several moments, until Calibri could no longer resist the urge to ask a question.

"Do you really have no other emotions but hate?" she asked. She supposed it was a rather inappropriate thing to ask, but you could never know. "I mean, you can't actually _remove _everything, can you? Maybe make hate the controlling emotion, but how can you just not have any emotions at all?"

"Dalek technology is superior to your understanding," answered the Dalek, giving her basically the usual. You're too stupid to understand the answer so I'm not even going to try and explain. Calibri rolled her eyes at him. Another arrogant jackass. She really shouldn't try. Arrogant jackasses didn't tend to listen to anyone but themselves and she pitied them for it. Sure, they may be cleverer and better than her at anything, but it's quite a sad life, really, because nobody likes the arrogant ones. Nobody likes feeling like he's any worse than anyone, and arrogant people really do tend to give you that sensation. So as they waste their time showing off and being all classy and independent or whatever they call it, they don't even see how they driver every person close to them away. They lead a very lonely life, and Calibri didn't envy that in the slightest. That was the reason she usually wasn't offended by those arrogant remarks. Overall, she knew that even if she failed in life completely, she could always rely on her friends to stick by her side. They didn't have that. They could only hide behind their good grades and good jobs and secretaries and hope loneliness doesn't kill them in the end. It's not usually enough unless you mix it all up with some sort of addiction, like to alcohol or drugs or gambling. And then it's not the loneliness that burns you inside out, it's the addiction. It was also the reason all these successful people, all these celebrities, end up overdosed. They simply have nothing else.

Calibri liked getting lost in her own thoughts. She liked the trance-like feeling when she stared out into empty space and thought, not remembering what it was she thought of later. It was always funny (for her, at least) to have someone realize you didn't hear a single word he said in the last five minutes or so. She liked the slightly wondering look people had when she didn't even notice them talking to her. The ability to listen sometimes seemed overrated to her. Sometimes the disability to do so seemed underrated. It all depended on many variants such as her mood, what she had to listen to, etc.

Suddenly the Dalek stopped. Calibri looked around, confused. She couldn't see anything unusual about where they were standing, and could find no reason for the Dalek to stop. She was going to have to attempt small-talk again.

"Why did we stop?" she asked the Dalek.

Surprisingly, it did answer this time. "My sensors have discovered more life forms."

"What life forms? Where?"

"They surround us."

"Who? Are they human?"

"The sensors discovered the life forms are of non-human origin."

"Is it the Doctor, then?"

"The sensors discovered the life forms are not of Time Lord origins."

"What is it, then?" she asked, getting impatient.

The Dalek remained silent, and Calibri assumed it didn't know. Typical. "Okay, then," she said. "We'll just have to figure it out the old fashioned way. I should go have a look at who it is."

"You must not leave my sight," said the Dalek angrily.

"Well, it's not like I'm going to run away with unknown life forms, am I?" asked Calibri. "Plus if I do it's even better for you. You get to murder more." And without further comments Calibri turned to the left and started walking. There was a path going downhill (_we're on a hill then, _thought Calibri.) and Calibri couldn't see what was there. It seemed like a good enough place to begin and the Dalek made no actions to stop her. Calibri jumped over some medium sized rocks and squeezed between a pretty massive one, about the width of a car and the height of a horse, and a wall. It got a bit difficult around middle as there was almost no space for her to move, but she pushed through and managed to get to the other side of the rock.

"Oh, you're freaking kidding me," murmured Calibri, as she looked in the cold, metal faces of dozens of silver Cybermen.


	12. Chapter 12

**A\N: So I got a review from Sabrina asking me to update soon, and I got really guilty. I know it takes me a really long time to post new chapters, and I'm really sorry for that, but that's just as good as it's gonna get. I don't like having deadlines and I don't tend to listen to deadlines. Plus if I have deadlines I'm much more likely to procrastinate, and it would make chapters even more rubbish than they already are because everything will be all forced out. Plus I'm not exactly the busiest person around, but I am busy. A bit. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. You don't. Well, anyway, my point is that I can't update any more often that I do otherwise I would feel rubbish about it and stop it altogether which I don't want. So yeah. That.**

Calibri found herself running back to the Dalek. Huh. It was a bit funny really, if you thought of it. Running to a Dalek because you're looking for protection. Well, to be fair, he did seem to want no harm done to her, while the Cybermen might want that, so the Dalek was her best chance.

When she saw the Cybermen she wanted to hit something. The whole day was escalating very, very quickly and she was just frustrated. Well, she was also scared, obviously, but mostly frustrated. It started nicely with the Doctor being real and New Earth. Of course, all the Doctor did since they met was trying to get rid of her, and New Earth has proved to be filled with nothing but stupid Daleks, bleepin' Cybermen and a woman giving birth.

It was really not what she thought was going to happen when she met the Doctor.

Calibri could hear the metal paces behind her. The Cybermen were approaching her. At least they were slow. But still, the idea of becoming a Cybermen always terrified her. Imagine your humanity is taken away and your brains get put inside an evil metal body and all you ever do is try to make everyone else like you. That was pretty damn awful.

"Dalek!" shouted Calibri. "Cybermen!"

_Lovely sentence-forming abilities you've got there,_ said a voice in her head. Calibri was getting really sick of that voice. It kept telling her what to do. So she did what she always did when someone told her what to do. She ignored it.

Calibri hurried to get behind the Dalek, who was already aiming his whisk (it was a whisk no matter what they tried to tell you) at the closest Cybermen. It quickly shot out blue lasers, making three Cybermen explode and burst into flames. But there was a whole army of them there… What were they even doing there? And how? And why?

_Just pretend it's a Moffat episode,_ said a different voice, a nicer one. _Things don't really need explaining but it's still alright._

_That would be a good idea,_ said the bossy voice. _Only Moffat does tend to kill the meaningless characters doesn't he…? Oh, wait, aren't you a meaningless character?_

_**Shut up! **_Calibri heard herself think. She felt like there was an angel on one of her shoulders and a demon on another. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Meanwhile, the Dalek continued its shooting spree, ignoring the Cybermen's shouts. Calibri watched with horror and fascination at the same time. She knew all these Cybermen were once people, living, breathing and feeling just like her. She knew all these people were long dead even before the Dalek shot them, and she knew they had a horrible, horrible death. But still, she couldn't help but feel like there was some sort of beauty in this. The Dalek didn't let any Cyberman get near. It moved around, aimed, shot and screamed in its metallic voice. The blue laser hit the Cybermen in what seemed like almost a dance of deadly light. Some of the dead Cybermen didn't explode but fell to the ground, exactly the way ordinary people would if they stood in the way. One of the Cybermen exploded and a small patch of grass caught on bright orange fire. Along all the killing, all the terror, Calibri couldn't take her eyes off of the tiny flame. She heard the Cybermen's screaming grow less and less frequent, until at last they stopped altogether, and the flames died out. There was nothing left for them to feed on.

Calibri looked up from the dead fire and looked at the scene. Cybermen remains were scattered all over the place, and less than two feet away from her stood the Dalek, unscratched. _He saved me,_ thought Calibri. _A Dalek. He saved my life._

She heard a voice inside her head, different than any other voice she heard before. It was soft and kind, and made her feel safer, even though she knew it wasn't real.

_**"It means everyone is capable of good,"**_ it said, more quietly than a leaf falling to the ground, yet the voice seemed to clear out all the other noises inside of her. All the people inside of her, all the life… It has all gone silent when it spoke.

Calibri hasn't enjoyed silence in so long.

_So long…_ The words repeated. _So, so long…_

Calibri didn't know whose voice it was, but she wanted to know. The voice seemed a strange to her, yet so familiar at the same time.

Suddenly she felt a tingle on the thin hairs on the back of her neck. She looked around, feeling that someone was watching her. She could see the Doctor, hiding behind a boulder. It really was about time he turned up. She wondered if he knew of the Cybermen. She supposed he did. Maybe it was them who tied him up earlier.

The Doctor's expression was hard to read from a distance, but Calibri knew him well enough to recognize the worry, even if he didn't know her the slightest. She glanced at the Dalek near her, who didn't seem to notice. Not saying a word, the Dalek started walking again, and she hurryingly gave the Doctor a small reassuring smile and followed. She hoped he wasn't going to get himself killed trying to save her. It sounded like such a Doctor-ish thing to do. Die for a complete stranger. She hoped he would decide he can't save her and leave. She knew it would be hard for him to do, because that's just who the Doctor was. He had to help, even if he would lose everything along the way. But she still hoped that maybe the Dalek taking her away was a fixed point in time, for whatever reason, and the Doctor couldn't do anything. She really didn't want to have the Doctor killed. As tragic as his death would be to her personally, it would be much worse later for pretty much the entire universe at different points in time because there will be no one to save them. And she wasn't going to die. If she was needed dead, the Dalek would have killed her already and wouldn't risk its own life defending hers. No, she was required for something else. But what? Experiments? They could have taken someone else for that ages ago. There was nothing physically different about her than any other human being, so there was no reason for her to be the specific lab rat the Daleks wanted. It had to be something else. However, all the possibilities Calibri could think of were variations of the previous two speculations. She told herself it didn't matter. She would find out eventually.

Calibri looked back again, not stopping her walking. The Doctor has moved closer and now she could see he was holding something in his hands. She narrowed her eyes trying to see clearer. It was some kind of a bundle… Was that hand? A tiny little hand was visible in that bundle. Is that… Is that Violet's baby? Where's Violet? Calibri assumed Violet stayed behind with the child, but obviously she didn't… Or maybe something has happened to her? Calibri couldn't see her anywhere, and she wouldn't just let the Doctor take her baby with him when he goes doing his shenanigans, would she? Why would the Doctor want to take him at all?

Calibri heard a 'click' sound and looked to her left, as did the Dalek who came to a stop.

Violet was fine, apart from looking very tired and sweaty and dirty. She looked like she had a hard time standing, and she was scary pale, but that wasn't Calibri's main interest. Her main interest was actually the fact that Violet was holding out a gun, the gun Calibri has left behind, and was aiming it at the Dalek.

"Step aside," said Violet, her voice stone-cold.

Calibri stepped aside. The Dalek seemed almost bored, if it was possible for Daleks to be bored.

"You cannot harm me," said the Dalek.

"Think again," answered Violet in the same tone she used previously. "You killed all the people I cared about and tried to kill my son and myself. You tried to kidnap a girl who did nothing wrong and put her own life in danger just so that my son can be safe. You are a merciless monster and before all this happened, I was a Paintball instructor. I passed courses and trainings and I can damn well use a gun. So," Calibri suddenly realized the click she heard was Violet loading the gun, "can I harm you?"

Without waiting for the Dalek to answer she shot one bullet. Just one. It hit right in the middle of the Dalek's eyestalk.

"Vision impaired!" shouted the Dalek, now definitely not bored. "Vision impaired!"

Violet snorted. "Your vision, is it? Try the planet."

She shot again, and Calibri felt a sudden jolt of pain in her arm as the Dalek exploded next to her. Calibri could hear Violet drop the gun to the floor, and the sound of running. She heard the Doctor give Violet her baby back. She could hear the Doctor saying something about her arm and could hear him approach her. She couldn't bring herself to care about any of these sounds. She stared at the dead Dalek, who murdered thousands of innocents and protected her. For once, all the voices were quiet and said nothing.

"-it's alright, not deep. Just a scratch. You'll be fine. Good thing we killed it, otherwise-"

"Him," said Calibri quietly, cutting the Doctor off.

"What?" asked the Doctor, not understanding what she meant.

Calibri looked back at the Doctor, discovering tears were clouding her vision. _Vision impaired, said the Dalek. Vision impaired. _"You killed _him, _not _it,_" she said. "He wasn't an it."

The Doctor looked at her silently for several moments and eventually spoke softly and carefully. "We had no choice," he said, almost apologetically. "It would have-"

Calibri shook her head. "I know. I know you had to. I know he was a murderer. A Dalek. But… Doesn't everyone deserve to be mourned upon?"

"Yes," said the Doctor quietly.

Calibri wiped her damp eyes. "Sorry," she murmured. "I didn't mean to go all… sad and stuff." She forced a smile and looked over to Violet, who was cradling the boy gently in her arms. "Do you know what you're going to call him?" she asked.

"Yes, I do," answered Violet with a smile. "His name is Cooper."

Calibri Cassidy Cooper couldn't help but grin at that. "That's a brilliant name," she said. "Cooper Murphy. The boy who was born under a Dalek attack."

"I should probably spare him the details," laughed Violet, but only for a moment. Then her expression turned sad. "Where would I go?" she asked the Doctor. "The Daleks… they destroyed everything. We were already almost gone after the Bliss Virus… The only place the Daleks didn't manage to invade is Downtown, and I can't go there. All the roads are closed."

"Well," said the Doctor, "we might be able to help with that."

_**ThisIsWhereI'dPutThePrettyGreyLineThingButIDon'tKn owHow**_

Violet and Cooper stepped out of the TARDIS, followed by the Doctor and Calibri.

"How the hell-?" shouted Violet at no one in particular. "How did we-?"

"Oh you don't want to know," Calibri hurried to say. "I found an explanation online once. Headache didn't go away for a week later."

Violet laughed. "What do I do now? Just start over?"

"Pretty much, yeah," agreed the Doctor optimistically. Then, in a sadder tone, he said, "I guess this is goodbye."

Violet nodded. "I guess so. Let's not make a big deal out of it, eh? Just a friendly goodbye. Goodbye, Doctor. Goodbye, Calibri. Thank you for saving our lives. Come visit sometime, yeah?"

"I will," said the Doctor with a sad smile.

Violet smiled back at him and Calibri, then turned around and left without any further farewells.

The Doctor suddenly turned to Calibri. "When's your birthday?" he asked her.

Calibri looked at him suspiciously, but answered the question. "July seventeenth… Why?"

The Doctor shrugged. "No reason," he said. "Come on, let's get you home."

_**ThisIsWhereI'dPutThePrettyGreyLineThingButIDon'tKn owHow**_

Calibri stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the wet grass. It was still dark. The grass was still wet. Nothing has changed since they left. But she couldn't see her blue notebook anywhere. She shrugged the thought off. It was dark, she'll find it in the morning.

"Right," she said. "I guess I'll be off, then." She started walking away, but something stopped her. She turned back to the Doctor. "Just… Thank you. Not just for saving me, just… Thank you. Thank you for saving our lives so many times."

"It was my pleasure," said the Doctor with a smile, the same smile he was wearing when he said goodbye to Violet in five billion years.

Calibri smiled and turned away from him. She reached for the door handle and was going to get out of the Doctor's life forever, the way it should have been. But then…

"Calibri!" called the Doctor, and she turned around. He tossed her a small silver object. She caught it and looked at it. It was a small, ordinary looking key, but she knew it wasn't even a tiny bit ordinary. It was a key to the TARDIS. She looked up at the Doctor, confused. "Why are you giving me this?" she asked.

"You were brilliant today," he said. "I'm coming back for you. On your eighteenth birthday, I'll come for you. We can see the universe together. If you want."

I laughed, unbelieving. "I want it more than anything."

His smile was no longer sad. "By the way, this specific key isn't just a key. It's quite the gadget. See the tiny button on the back? It activates a low level perception filter. If you don't want to be noticed, press the button, and no one will notice you until you press it again."

Calibri chuckled. "That's pretty cool," she laughed. "That's really pretty cool."

"Yes, it is," laughed the Doctor. "Well! Time to go. You, enjoy the rest of your time here. Enjoy ordinary life. Ordinary life… It's quite unbeatable. Have fun." The Doctor went back inside the TARDIS and closed the door after him. The light bulb on top of the TARDIS started flashing, and Calibri heard the brilliant noise again. The TARDIS's noise, as the Doctor left. But not eternally. Calibri looked at the key.

"It was real," she whispered. "It was real, it was real, it was real."


	13. Chapter 13

**A\N: So it's been a long time again. I'm sorry, okay? I am. But it's not my fault. Well, it is, but not entirely. Well, it is, but… Oh, shut it.**

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around. Cool wind blew the dry brown leaves over the grey pavement. People were walking about not far from him, busy in their regular daily life. Everything was just as it should have been. But something felt wrong.

The Doctor took a moment to study his location. It was nighttime, and he was standing in a dirty alley in a typical London street. He walked out of the alley, following the sound of cars, and found himself in a rather busy street. Nothing about the place reminded Calibri's quiet and peaceful backyard. But the TARDIS took him here instead for a reason he was yet unaware of.

He turned around, retraced his steps, tried turning to different directions, looking for the familiar curls in the crowd. Five times he thought he saw her in there and five times he was proven wrong. The Doctor sighed. He tried deducting. Where would Calibri go to celebrate her eighteenth birthday? He looked around the street some more, trying to figure things out. There was a bar at the corner, but Calibri was still too young for that, and she never seemed quite the drinking type. There were several shops, but he was unconvinced Calibri would choose a shopping trip as a birthday celebration. A neon lit sign caught his eye, and as he turned to look he found what appeared to be a club. Calibri was old enough for clubs, surely… The Doctor decided the club was worth a try and attempted to walk in, only to be stopped by a black man in dark clothing.

"Where d'you think you're going, pal?" he asked in a tone that suggested he didn't think of the Doctor as a pal.

"Inside," replied the Doctor innocently.

The bouncer chuckled. "I don't think so, mate. We're full," he said as he let three girls in their twenties pass without giving them a second glance.

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he pulled out his psychic paper. "Regular health check," he quickly said. "Just want to make sure the place is rat-free. I won't be long."

The bouncer just shrugged and moved aside, murmuring something as the Doctor ran past.

The man wasn't lying, the Doctor admitted to himself. The place really was full. Tracing one specific girl inside this mess would be nearly impossible. But the Doctor was never one to fear impossible, and he decided he should sit at the bar. Eventually, Calibri would probably get thirsty, and if not, the bar had a good view of the exit. Of course, Calibri could not be there at all… But he had to try. It was his best shot of finding her, and he promised. He didn't want to let any more people down by being late. He pushed his way through the mass of people until he finally reached the bar. He quickly found an empty chair and sat on it, looking around for Calibri.

"What can I get ya?" asked a feminine voice from behind the bar.

"Nothing," the Doctor began while turning around to look at the girl behind him. "I'm just looking for my-" The Doctor met the girl's hazel eyes and stopped talking. The hazel eyes in front of him have gone wide with shock as they recognized the man in the suit.

"-friend…" the Doctor finished. He blinked, just to make sure, but the eyes were still there, and so was the rest of the face, and the familiar brown hair and all the rest of Calibri Cooper. "What are you doing here?" was all he managed to say.

"I _work_ here," hissed Calibri. "And you're _late_. Outside, _now,"_ she said and dragged him with her through the mass of people and out into the cold fresh air.

"Alright, listen," Calibri started off angrily. "For starters, next time you have one of your lovely little telepathic chats with the TARDIS, you might want to tell her that when some people make a statement referring to a certain time they are supposed to come at, they are expected to follow that statement unless a counter statement is made, which by the way, was not. So when you say, 'Calibri, I'll be back in July seventeenth,' you're actually supposed to come at July seventeenth and not STINKING OCOTOBER."

"Well…" the Doctor hesitated, feeling guilty. "To be fair, I'm only a few months late…"

Calibri gave him a look.

"…But… If you're eighteen how can you be working in a club…"

"I'm TWENTY FIVE!" shouted Calibri furiously.

"…Ah," the Doctor managed to say. "So that's… Seven years." He coughed. "I see why you're upset. Sorry."

Calibri took a deep breath to calm herself. "Okay. Glad I got that out of my system, it's been there for a while."

"I really am sorry," said the Doctor, voice dripping with guilt. "And I can make it up to you."

"You better," said Calibri. "You already broke one promise, don't make it two. I'm going with you, right? I get to be the companion."

The Doctor smiled. "Come along, Cooper."

Calibri grinned and hugged the Doctor happily. "We should probably work on a catchphrase though," she said as she got off him. "Come along Cooper is just not catchy."

All that frustration and anger she felt because of the Doctor were gone, just like that. Instead she felt the way she did before he was late. The excitement, the slight disbelief paired with childish joy, the hope. All of these magical feelings were now sweeping Calibri off her feet.

"Yeah, we should," laughed the Doctor. He grabbed her hand and led her to the TARDIS. He was just about to open the door when Calibri stopped him.

"Actually," she said, "may I have the honor?" Calibri pulled a silver chain the Doctor was unaware of earlier out of her shirt. Instead of a locket, the necklace was made to carry a small silver key with a tiny button on it. Calibri removed the necklace and put the key in its place. She stalled for a few seconds. _That's it,_ she thought. _You're going to travel with the Doctor now, just turn the key and it's yours._ With a grin Calibri turned the key and opened the dark blue doors. She walked in and heard the slight hum greeting her. She walked in and felt at home.

**So this one's a bit short and a bit silly and not a very good chapter at all. I thought I was gonna manage put more depth into this chapter, I was obviously wrong, but hey, look at the so original idea of the Doctor being late! I mean you never saw that coming. And it's totally my idea and no one else's. Yep. **

**Denial's great no matter what people say.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A\N: So it's summer now, and I have nothing to do all day, which means I run out of excuses not to do that. Not that I don't enjoy it, but you know how sometimes a friend asks you over and you just don't really want to just because? It's sort of like that only not really at all alike. **

"Where to?" asked Calibri. It's been two months since the Doctor showed up in the club she worked for, and almost every day was an adventure. Not every day, though. Sometimes they would just go somewhere peaceful (sometimes it even stayed peaceful) or just stayed in the TARDIS. But she liked everything they did, no matter how things turned out.

Calibri didn't do much during her seven years of waiting. She graduated poorly, and couldn't afford university anyway, so the good jobs were something she didn't even bother thinking about. She got a job as a bartender for a while before getting laid off, and then her friend, who was a bartender in a club, told her they had a vacancy. She needed the cash, and she figured it wouldn't be different than her older work, so that was it.

She lived in a small two-room apartment just outside London. It was the best she could afford as she was determined not to ask her adoptive parents for help, but she didn't mind. It was just her most of the time, and it was quite enough, even if she didn't have a backyard for the Doctor to park his TARDIS in.

It didn't take her long to recover from the disappointment after her eighteenth birthday. She never expected him to come on time; even if she hoped he'd only be a few months late. She soldiered on and went on in her life, moved out, got the job and all of it. She even had a boyfriend for a year and a half, Jonathan, but it didn't work out. Then there was Harry a year later. They broke up two weeks before their third anniversary, which was harder than with Jonathan, but she moved on.

And in all that mess of personal life and career life, she still waited. She still looked up to the sky once in a while, looking for a blue box in the stars, and she still glanced around her shoulders sometimes, thinking she heard the TARDIS. She never found the Doctor, but it was alright. She knew he'd come.

"Hmmm… I don't know," admitted the Doctor from the pilot chair. "Where do you want to go?"

Calibri bit her lip. There was so much to choose from, how could she? It took her ages just to settle for what she had for dinner, let alone a trip in the whole of time and space. But somehow, an idea came to her mind almost instantly.

"Can I meet Jack?"

The Doctor looked up, alarmed. "Jack Harkness?" he asked, as if to make sure.

"Hmm-hmm," Calibri nodded.

"…No," declared the Doctor.

"Oh, come on!" insisted Calibri. "Why not?"

"Because," said the Doctor just as stubbornly.

"You're just scared he'd start flirting with you," Calibri pointed out.

"No, I'm scared he'd start flirting with _you_," explained the Doctor.

Calibri couldn't stop a chuckle. "Oh, _please_," she began. "I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself when it comes to flirting with the Captain."

"You don't know him," protested the Doctor.

"Course I do, he just doesn't know me."

"I said no," said the Doctor in a tone that was supposed to make it clear that the conversation is over, but Calibri was not going to give up just yet.

"You still think of me as a teenager," accused Calibri. "I'm a grown woman and I don't even need your permission. I can go myself."

"No, you can't."

"Yeah, I can," she insisted,. "The TARDIS will show me how to get there. She likes me."

The Doctor was about to argue when he realized she was right. The TARDIS did seem to like his new companion quite a lot. To be honest, it confused him. Her affection to Calibri was almost as much as her affection to himself, and Calibri was only there for two months. But some people were just friendly-TARDIS-material.

"Can we go, then?'Cause I'll go anyway, but I'd rather go with you."

"Well…" the Doctor tried resisting, but Calibri's begging eyes pierced right through him mercilessly."Fine," he gave in. "Cardiff it is."

"Yes!" Calibri jumped up, satisfied. "Do the buttony thingy and let's go!"

The Doctor gave her an amused look. "Buttony thingy?"

"Well, I don't know what else to call it."

"How about, flying the TARDIS?"

"But you're doing it wrong."

"Oi!"

"You know it's true," said Calibri pointedly. "If you can have wibbly wobbly, I can have buttony thingy. It sound fair enough to me."

The Doctor laughed and approached the console, doing some buttony thingy and making the TARDIS to rattle around. As it stopped the Doctor waved at the doors. "There you go," he said. "Cardiff, just on top of the rift. Jack has probably detected us by now, with all that Torchwood equipment he's got going on, so we don't get to give him a surprise visit at the Hub, I'm afraid. Now-"

But Calibri didn't want to hear anymore warnings about Jack. She quickly ran to the doors and exited the TARDIS, ignoring the Doctor's protests behind her.

Sunlight was the first thing that hit her. Blinding sunlight that made her blink several times and caused purple-orange shapes to appear when she closed her eyes. Then she saw the painfully white floor, so bright she could hardly look down at it, and before she had a chance to examine the rest she became aware of the man running towards her. The man was wearing a very long dark coat that basically screamed World War II. He had short brown hair and brown eyes surrounded by small wrinkles she knew he would rather ignore. He was shouting, she realized. He was shouting the Doctor's name. It made Calibri smile. No matter how hard they try to hide it from themselves, these two were meant to be best friends. She remembered all these Torchwood episodes, how happy she got whenever there was a Doctor reference. Not just because it was cool, but also because she loved Jack's relationship with the Doctor. Back when it was all just a TV show, people used to ship them a lot. Calibri never really believed in that ship, but if there were friendship ships, she knew what she would have picked.

Captain Jack Harkness finally caught up, just the moment the Doctor came out of the blue box and into the clear air. Jack stopped in front of them, slightly out of breath.

"Captain!" exclaimed the Doctor.

"Doctor," greeted Jack.

"Nice to see you, it's been a while," said the Doctor, grinning as ever.

"No kidding," agreed Jack, "almost thought you retired."

"Nah, you know me, never stopping."

"I bet," said Jack with a wink, and before the Doctor had time to respond he turned his gaze to Calibri. "Got yourself a new companion, I see." Jack offered his hand and Calibri shook it, while Jack grinned and said, "Hi. Captain Jack Harkness."

"Calibri Cooper," answered Calibri in a similar tone and grin.

"Stop it," the Doctor warned, and Calibri rolled her eyes.

"I'm just making friends!" complained Jack. "It's not fair; I don't get to meet anyone when you're around."

"You have quite enough meetings when I'm not."

Jack giggled like a teenager.

"Oh, stop it," grumbled the Doctor.

"You realize this one's your fault, do you?" asked Calibri, highly entertained.

"Oi! Who's side are you on?"

"The funny one."

"Thank you," said Jack, taking a break from laughing.

"I never said you were the funny one," Calibri teased.

"Well, who else would it be? The Doctor?"

"What's wrong with my jokes?" the Doctor asked, suddenly sounding worried.

"Not much," admitted Jack, "they're just not funny."

"Well, what about-"

"Will you both shut it?" asked Calibri with a chuckle. "You're like two lions trying to establish a social status."

They both stopped and stared at that.

"Lions establishing a social status?" the Doctor asked finally.

Calibri felt herself flush, but was desperate to defend her punch lines. "Yeah."

"How did you even get there?" Jack laughed.

"It's the Doctor's fault anyway," Calibri accused. "Seven years, you'd get bored. I watched a lot of Nat Geo Wild instead of rotting up waiting."

The Doctor and Jack both spoke at the same time.

"_Nat Geo Wild?"_ asked the Doctor.

"Seven years?" wondered Jack.

"Yes!" Calibri insisted on pretending she didn't know how odd she sounded. "Now are you planning on standing there establishing statuses or get breakfast somewhere? I'm starving."

**A\N: Yep. Calibri met Jack. I know it's been mostly bad dialogues of a chapter, but I had fun writing it, so now you have that instead of a good chapter I probably can't write anyway. **

**I actually did get slightly addicted to Nat Geo Wild lately, and I'm a bit embarrassed by that, and what's the best way to deal with embarrassment? Make a reference about it in a fic and pretend it's a joke.**

**If you liked the chapter of the story, I'd be happy if you review, and if you have anything bothering you concerning the fic, or anything you think would improve it or even complaints about me being a lazy-ass, please review. And obviously, if you haven't already, follow. Obviously. The End! (I'm bad at endings. Sorry.)**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: See? You see that? A new chapter. Really early. Aren't you all proud of me?**

"So, basically," Calibri began over a plate of scrambled eggs, "there's a TV show called 'Doctor Who'. And it's about the Doctor and his adventures across time and space. There's also a TV show called 'Torchwood', which is about Torchwood 3 here in Cardiff and it's about stuff you and your team do."

Jack stared at her for several moments before making his statement. "You're mental."

"I thought so too at first," agreed Calibri, not even slightly offended. "I mean, it hardly makes any sense. Any of it. The show only seems to really exist when it's comfortable, like if there are going to be explanations needed to make people understand why two famous actors walk into a café in Cardiff with a random girl after leaving what looks a lot like the TARDIS from that SciFi show they've been in, it's like people suddenly forget about it completely. But still, when I want to talk to my friends who like the show too everything is back to normal life."

Jack's gaze moved from Calibri to the Doctor. "Is she serious?"

"Yep," agreed the Doctor. "Mine's been going since 1963, yours since 2006."

"But people still won't recognize me in the streets as an actor and the plotlines are still real."

"Pretty much."

"I told you it made no sense," Calibri sighed.

"So, wait, what was that thing you said earlier about seven years?"

"Oh, that. Well, when I was seventeen the TARDIS materialized in my backyard, I step inside, TARDIS takes me to New Earth, we have an adventure and the Doctor brings me back home, _promising_-"

"I said I was sorry!"

"-to get back my eighteenth birthday. Of course, good ole TARDIS instead goes to two months ago, resulting in me waiting for seven years." Calibri stopped for breath. "And that's basically it."

"Mine is more complicated," said Jack, making Calibri laugh.

"I admit you got me there. The man who can never die? Definitely complicated."

"How much do you actually know about my life?" asked Jack.

"Not as much as you think," replied Calibri lightly. "The show really like being all mysterious about your past so I don't know _much_. I do know more than I expect you to be comfortable with."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"It's rated T+," admitted Calibri, watching with amusement as Jack's eyebrow drop with realization.

The table became awkwardly silent for several minutes, but Calibri didn't mind as it gave her a chance to finish her breakfast. The silence was broken up by a sudden beeping coming from the Doctor's direction.

"What the hell is that?" Calibri asked, as the Doctor pulled out a device that looked like it's been made of random lumps of metal and reminded Calibri of his Timey-Wimey Detector.

"Sorry, gotta go," said the Doctor, ignoring her question. "There's a hatching lizard."

And that was the last sentence he said before storming out of the café.

"What just happened?" asked Jack.

Calibri chuckled. "The Doctor happened, that's what."

The silence was restored, but very shortly this time.

"So," Jack was the one to break the silence this time, "how would you like a tour around Torchwood?"

"Seriously?"

"Well, you already know about it and I can't retckon you because you're the Doctor's companion, so there's no security reason not to. Do you want to?"

Calibri snorted ungracefully. "Heck yeah."

_ThisIsWhereI'dPutTheGreyLineThingyButIDon'tKnowHow _

"Calibri!" shouted the Doctor, entering the Torchwood Hub. "Jack!" He looked around for the two. "False alarm, they're not hatching yet. Did scare the hell out of the mother, though, but it's alright." He stopped. "Um, are you there?"

Silence.

"Jack?" the Doctor returned to his original shouting strategy. "Calibri?" He went up the stairs, around some tables, into offices, but they were just nowhere to be found. "Calibri! Jack!" The Doctor sighed. When the business with the hatching was done, he wanted to go back to Calibri and Jack but they were no longer where he left them, and he had no idea where they could have gone. The Hub was the one place that made sense, but there he was and they were not. But there was still one place left untouched – the lowest cellars.

The Doctor found the lift and hit the lowest button. Standing in the lift he whistled to himself and wondered where he would go if they weren't there either. He probably would have come up with something if he had the time, but the lift stopped and the doors opened, allowing him out.

The Doctor was just about to call out for them again, but he heard something coming from a closed door in the end of the cellar. His blood went cold. What if one of the creatures Torchwood had locked up has gotten lose? Very slowly and very quietly the Doctor moved towards the door, really hoping everything was okay. He was probably just being too worried. They were probably just having a chat. That was the voice he heard. But when you have the creatures of hell in your basement, things can always take an unexpected turn.

The Doctor slowly reached out for the door handle. Very very quietly, he slowly turned it and pushed, looking inside.

Well, it was definitely nothing alien.

It was far worse than that.

The Doctor closed the door, not quietly and not slowly at all, turned around and walked away. The sounds from behind the doors had stopped, but the Doctor wasn't worried about it this time. The Doctor didn't stop walking even after he heard the door open behind him. Instead he kept walking all the way out of the Hub, through the open Welsh air and back into the TARDIS, where he sat down on the pilot chair and waited. He didn't have to wait long.

The TARDIS door opened slowly and behind it stood Calibri, and judging by her expression she wanted the earth to swallow her whole.

"Hi," she said dryly.

The Doctor didn't even answer, just nodded as if to tell her he is aware of her presence.

Calibri entered the TARDIS and closed the door behind her. She slowly walked to reach the console, as if she wasn't sure she was allowed to. She stood in silence, leaning on the console, trying to decide what to say, but fortunately for her she didn't have to as the Doctor was the one to speak first.

"What the hell was that?" he asked quietly.

Calibri hesitated. She knew this wasn't the time to be careless about what she says. She had to be really careful about this one. "Nothing happened," she blurted out.

"Really?" the Doctor asked in fake surprise. "Didn't look like nothing to me."

"It wasn't what it looked like," she said. "We were just… Kissing."

"Just kissing!" the Doctor shouted so suddenly Calibri backed away from him as he jumped off the chair. "This is _exactly_ why I didn't want you to go, because I knew something like that would happen!"

"I didn't mean to!" Calibri yelled back at him, and the Doctor was shocked to see tears in her eyes. Calibri was just as shocked to feel them and lowered her head, staring at the floor, angry for her tears.

The Doctor was taken aback by her tears and wanted to say something but never got the chance. Calibri stormed off without looking at him, trying unsuccessfully to hide her wet cheeks. She ran out of the console and into her room, shutting the door behind her and locking it. She sat down on her bed and tried her best to stop the flow of tears. She didn't want to cry. She hated crying. It made her feel like the stupid little girl she didn't want to be. But she was just so frustrated, so suddenly… She couldn't take it. So she fled the room like a moody teenager and now she just felt like the most pathetic person in the world.

She heard someone knocking at her door. The Doctor, most likely. Usually, when she cried back home, all she wanted was for the Doctor to be there to comfort her, but now he was the last person she wanted to talk to. It was his fault she was crying in the first place. How could he just snap at her like that? She did nothing wrong. She knew it wasn't easy for the Doctor to understand she was a grown woman now, but at the moment she didn't care. She was just so angry and frustrated and nothing seemed fair. She wanted the knocking to stop, but it didn't.

"GO AWAY!" she screamed, and didn't recognize her own voice. Her voice wasn't supposed to be so shaky, so loud, and so full of anger. But the scream got what she wanted and the knocking stopped.

Calibri lay on her bed, much calmer than before. Why was she even crying like a baby? It's not like she never got yelled at in her life. She was just being silly. There was nothing to cry about. She should just shut up and go to sleep. Things like these always looked so much simpler after sleeping. So Calibri did sleep, without even changing her clothes. Before she fell asleep, she thought of Jack. Was it even worth it? She didn't love him or anything. But kissing him felt so great. Who did the Doctor think he was to try and take that away from her?

When Calibri slept, she dreamt of the way she kissed Jack and the way Jack kissed her. Even in the dream, it felt like heaven.

**A/N: So there you have it. Calibri/Jack action, Calibri and the Doctor's first fight… I wrote this while being in a weird mood, so I guess I could blame the chapter on that, but I won't because I could mess it up a lot worse and I didn't.**

**About halfway through the chapter I remembered the Hub exploded so it couldn't actually be there, but I didn't want to rewrite the whole thing, so I'm just going to pretend it was rebuilt or something. And you can't tell me not to, because it's my fic and I can do what I like so shut up and review.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A\N: Sweet TARDIS of Gallifrey she uploaded another chapter! Let's all be happy about it and pretend it doesn't suck!**

Calibri was never a morning person. She has never, ever, not even once in her entire life, woken up in a good mood. So when Calibri woke in her bedroom aboard the TARDIS and remembered the previous night, she was not in a good mood at all.

Before going to sleep, Calibri was mad at the Doctor. Now she was mad at herself for acting as childish as she has. She rubbed the sleep away from her eyes and tried explaining to herself why she was such a crybaby.

"So you make out with Jack freaking Harkness," Calibri began (talking to herself was an old habit she had, but she had the sense to only do it when there was nobody else around). "The Doctor sees it and gets pissed. Quite right too, if you think about it, because you specifically told him nothing like that would happen. That was one of the conditions of actually meeting him. So the Doctor snaps at you, and you start crying and run away, then when he comes knocking at your door you scream at him." Calibri sighed, as if to show herself how disappointed she is in her actions. "Now let's see where it went wrong. You kissed Jack. You knew this was not a good idea but you did it anyway. I can forgive that. Then you're surprised when the Doctor reacts badly." At that point of the self-conversation Calibri noticed her hands were swinging up and down as she talked to herself, but she didn't really care. "Now, you know that you would have reacted the same way and probably worse, so you can't blame the Doctor for anything, really, which doesn't sound fair, but that's life. Now back to the part where you turn into a sixteen year old… Crying was not necessary. You could have tried not to. The running I get, you can't have a fight with the Doctor if you're crying, you're just that bad at multitasking. But yelling at him to go away – that was not the right thing to do, now was it? You were supposed to wipe the STUPID tears off your CRYING BITCHY face, open the door and talk like an adult."

Now that what she should have done was sorted, Calibri began trying to think of what she should do now. The best course of action would probably be getting out of the room, find the Doctor and talk. But she really, really, seriously didn't want to. She knew it would be awkward and when things go awkward she stutters and her brain shuts down and that's not good. She can't do that, it won't work as it does in films because this was real life and in real life things get messed up and it takes more than ninety minutes to fix them. So what the hell was she supposed to do?

A knock on the door cut her trail of thoughts, which was just too bad because Calibri already had a plan B just out of reach in her head, now forgotten. But instead of dwelling on the loss of that plan, she decided to open the door and just have the stupid awkwardness she knew she can't avoid forever.

But it wasn't the Doctor who waited behind the door. It was Captain Jack Harkness.

"Jack?" Calibri blurted out, more surprised than anything. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she opened the door wider to allow him inside.

"Good morning to you, too," said Jack.

Calibri rolled her eyes. "Good morning," she said quickly, wanting her answer.

"Well, the Doctor showed up in the Hub and told me you had a fight last night. He said you won't talk to him." His eyes focused at Calibri, who suddenly found the floor very interesting.

Calibri just shrugged still looking down, not knowing what else she could really say.

Jack suddenly looked to her like all those teachers or parents or counselors or just some adult who was around who tried to get her to talk when stuff went wrong. It wasn't common, but she still remembered it. How they all used to try look her in the eyes when she tried avoiding their glance, how their tone was quiet and soft, how they sat down or bent when she was little and was shorter than them. She could never bear it when they did it; she just wanted to be left alone. She didn't like the way their eyes always stared, the way the pity leaked from their words and the way they only seemed to ask her whether she wanted to tell them what happened or talk to a person who was involved in her getting upset or when she was little if she wanted to go wash her face if she's been crying. It was just the same, she realized, but this time it was better. Maybe because this time she wasn't a child, or maybe because it was Jack.

"Do you regret it?" Jack asked softly.

Calibri couldn't keep looking down at this one. She knew what the meant, but she still had to ask. "Regret what?"

"Last night," he said, "in the Hub."

Calibri blushed. "No," she mumbled. "I don't. Do you?"

Jack made a small smile. "No."

Calibri smiled too, just a little bit, but enough. "How's the Doctor?" she asked. "Is he still mad?"

"I reckon he does," said Jack, "but I don't think it's too bad. Nothing to make him leave you in 200,100."

Calibri chuckled, but she was looking at the floor again, unable to look up.

"Calibri," said Jack.

Calibri said nothing.

"Calibri, look at me."

Calibri forced herself to look into his eyes, his deep blue eyes.

"That's better," said Jack. "You have pretty eyes. You should let people see them. There's no reason for you not to look people in the eyes."

Calibri couldn't find anything to say, so she just nodded. Then she thought back to the Doctor. "I should go talk to him, shouldn't I?"

Jack nodded. "You can push it back as long as you like but you'll have to face him eventually. Better sooner than later."

Calibri took a deep breath and walked out of her bedroom followed by Jack. She walked in silence, her eyes fixed forwards and her back straight. She wanted to make up for how stupid she looked the previous night, and she should start by not slouching for once in her life. She walked into the console room where the Doctor stood with his back to her, fiddling with the controls and looking grim.

"Doctor," said Calibri softly.

The Doctor turned around on the spot and Calibri thought that even if she would have shot the air to make him aware of her presence he couldn't have turned more quickly. "Hi," he said quietly.

"Hi," Calibri replied awkwardly and was just about to return to her awkward speechless solitude when she suddenly thought she had enough of solitude. _Screw it,_ she though. _Let's be confident._

"I'm not sorry Jack and I kissed," she blurted out, and the words seemed to flow out of her like a river. "And I'm not sorry you saw it. I am sorry we fought about it." The Doctor was about to reply but she wasn't done. "But, Doctor, you have to understand that I'm not seventeen anymore. I get that this is hard to accept, I really do, but I don't need anyone to tell me what's right and what's wrong, I can tell myself. And you can't tell me not to kiss people because it's my choice to make. I know you're trying to protect me, and I need protection from so many things if I want to travel with you, but not in this. Not here. I'm sorry we fought. I'm sorry I overreacted. I'm sorry I told you to go away. I want things to be okay again."

The Doctor smiled softly. "Me too."

Calibri grinned and ran to him, almost knocking him over in a hug.

**A\N: Goody, everyone's happy again. I actually wanted to make their fight a bit longer than just one night, but I figured it would be really hard to keep a plotline going if the Doctor is mad at Calibri and if Calibri is crying all the time. Plus I don't like the cheering up talks. I know they're supposed to be awkward because in real life it's also awkward, but I hate it when dialogues come out all slow and clumsy and bad. So I hope you like it and don't forget to review!**


	17. Chapter 17

**A\N: So I was sitting in front of my laptop, just staring at the background, debating with myself for a bit until I gave in and started this new chapter. I was hit by this sudden realization that the end is not far away. I mean like, really, it's just a few more chapter to the epilogue. It scares me, just a little, because this is my first fic, and I don't know if I'm ready for it to end yet. But still, everything ends, and there's no point grieving about it before it even happens, so here's the next one:**

Calibri stared down at the white piece of paper. It was filled with tally marks. Normally a piece of paper filled with tally marks meant very bad news, but not this time, because this wasn't the scary kind of tally marking. She was just counting the days since she arrived. It was hard keeping track of time in the TARDIS, and her phone sometimes automatically changed its date when they were in modern Earth, and sometimes it felt important to remember how long it's been.

Today was one of the days it felt important. She counted the marks and made a quick double-check, even though she knew it was unnecessary. She didn't get this one wrong. It was too important for mistakes.

She's been travelling with the Doctor for over six months now, and she loved it, she loved every second. But it's been over six months since that October day the Doctor came for her, and today wasn't just another day.

Today was the day her sister was lost.

Calibri rarely allowed herself to think of Canary. Whenever she met new people she told them she had no siblings, and whenever she met a friend she had since school-days, or just someone who was in the same science class as her, she tried leading the conversation away from her. She didn't want to forget her sister, not really, but she wanted to forget she lost her. She buried Canary deep, not mentioning it even to herself, but sometimes it was harder. Once a year, Calibri had a hard time coping with that loss. And today would be ten years since that loss. Can you imagine? Ten years without your twin sister, your closest friend since birth, and sometimes the only one.

Calibri felt the sudden urge to tell someone. She's been trying to ignore it for hours, but it was getting even worse by the minute. Like when people say not to scratch a bug bite and then it won't itch anymore, but it's not really true and it just gets more and more tempting. Calibri had lots of bug bites, and she could never resist the urge to scratch. She felt like beating her head against a wall, but she thought it would bring very little use. She knew she couldn't resist it forever. She had to tell the Doctor.

Calibri started walking around the TARDIS looking for the Doctor, when she was hit by an idea. It was a stupid idea and a long shot, but it had to be worth trying.

If Rose Tyler could go back and see her father die, why could Calibri Cooper go back and see what happened to her sister?

Calibri's calm paces suddenly became running and she found herself sprinting from one room to another until she found the Doctor in one of them reading a thick and ancient looking book. She was tempted to ask about the book, but she knew she had more important matters to take care of. The book could wait. Canary has waited for ten years, if maybe she is still alive somewhere.

The Doctor looked up from his book and smiled at Calibri, but his smile faded away as he saw her serious expression. "Is everything alright?" he asked with concern.

"I need to go somewhere," said Calibri urgently.

He blinked at her. "Sure, where?"

Calibri told him where and when.

"What happened then?" he asked.

Calibri hesitated. Sure, she wanted to talk about it, but it didn't make it any easier. "My sister went missing," she said eventually.

Sympathy spread over the Doctor's face. "Are you sure you want to go?" he asked gently.

"Yes," she said. "And I know the rules. No interfering. Even if she's not dead somewhere we can't just take her. We need to wait for ten years otherwise that's a paradox, because if we bring her home too early that means she's already been around when you took me, and that means I wouldn't be asking to go there. But I want to see what happened to her."

The Doctor nodded.

The walk to the control room was quiet and long. Calibri was grateful to see the console, and even more grateful to see the Doctor whizzing about over it. When the usual rattling stopped, Calibri didn't wait for the Doctor to tell her and went outside.

It was a sunny day, she remembered as the bright light hit her right in the eyes. She felt the Doctor's presence behind her and kept walking until she reached the big trash bin standing a few feet away.

"She went to throw out the garbage," said Calibri sadly. "It was supposed to take a minute, but instead of hearing her coming home I heard her screaming. By the time I got here she was gone." She turned to face the Doctor. "It was my turn to throw out the garbage. It should have been me but my ankle hurt so she went instead. It should have been me. It's my fault."

The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault," he stated. "If whatever took her wanted her, it would have waited for her to come out. If it was a random taking yes, it could have taken you instead, but what would be the point?"

"What do you mean?"

"You are the one who went to her backyard to write, the one who met me. If you would have been taken, nobody would have been out there in that yard, and that would be it. You would have been gone forever with no chance of escape, ever. Your sister, on the other hand, can be saved, if she's alive. Do you get that? It's not your fault."

Calibri hesitated. She knew he was right, but a part of her didn't want to hear. She lived all these years knowing it was because of her, and now it's not true anymore. Was she supposed to just accept that?

_No,_ said a firm voice inside her. _Forget what you thought, you know he's right. You're no use to yourself or anyone if you keep blaming yourself._

Calibri didn't always recognize the voices, but this one was easy. It was Canary's voice, her sister's. Calibri decided to take her sister's advice. She nodded.

Just then she heard someone approaching. The Doctor heard it too, and they both hid behind another trash bin, just a few feet away from the original one.

The first thing Calibri saw was a pair of black boots, then tight jeans, then a dark blue shirt, and then came the familiar face and ink black hair. Calibri's heart skipped a beat as she saw her sister's face for the first time in ten years. Oh, how she missed her. She missed the secrets they'd tell each other at night, the teasing, even the fighting. She missed the bond they had, after all these years together. Before they were adopted the only things they had was each other. That created a bond more powerful than anything Calibri has known in her entire life.

And now she was about to see her sister taken away from her.

Canary walked to the bin, opened it and threw her bag inside. Everything seemed alright to this point. But the peace didn't last long.

An SUV stopped by her. Calibri didn't pay the traffic any attention up until now, so she didn't see it approaching, and neither did Canary. But when a man jumped out of the SUV and grabbed Canary, everybody was paying attention. Canary screamed before the man's hand was over her mouth, and Calibri knew the scream was the one her past self heard. The man pulled Canary inside, and in the blink of an eye they were gone.

The Doctor was about to get up, but Calibri pulled him back aside her. They couldn't come out just yet.

Soon enough a fifteen year old Calibri Cooper stood there, panting from running, looking around for her sister. "Canary?" the girl cried out. She walked around a bit and stopped as she stepped on something. She looked down and saw her sister's phone, the one she dropped as she was grabbed. The panting girl looked back up, panic now visible in her eyes. "Canary?" she shouted. "CANARY?!" Almost in tears now, she ran away. To call her mum, Calibri knew.

Only when the girl was completely gone, Calibri let go of the Doctor and stood up. She didn't know what to make of what they have just witnessed, but at least now she knew her sister wasn't murdered on the spot. But if it was an ordinary kidnap, why did no one contact them about paying for Canary's freedom?

"Are you OK?" she heard the Doctor ask behind her.

She nodded absent-mindedly, not really caring if she was OK or not. More urgent issues were on the matter. "Anyway you can track the SUV?" she asked.

"Do you have the number?" he asked.

"I remember it," said Calibri, and followed the Doctor into the TARDIS, where she told him the number as he typed it into one of the technological-stuff on the console.

"She found them," said the Doctor. "Let's look in the scanner," he added, moving a screen so that she could see what was happening.

The SUV parked near a building. She didn't know where it was, and the image quality was horrific. All she could tell about the building was that it was certainly not how you'd expect it to look. She thought it would look old and dirty and more like a warehouse, but this was one of the more posh buildings in London. Where were they taking her?

The same man she saw taking Canary now walked out of it, holding someone with a sack over her head. Calibri knew it was Canary. The man walked inside the building with his hostage and Calibri could see nothing more.

"What happened?" she asked. "Doctor, what were they doing to my sister?"

"I don't know," admitted the Doctor. "But I think it's time you find out."

**A\N: And you silly readers though I wasn't going to bring Canary up again. So next chapter would involve looking for her and really getting into why she was taken and by whom… I think I'm going to manage to surprise you this time. What do you think? **


	18. Chapter 18

**A\N: I'm really excited about this chapter. I've been waiting to write this one since basically since chapter one, so here it is!**

"Calibri, will you go take out the rubbish?" asked Canary. "It's your turn."

Calibri made a lazy moan. "But my ankle hurts," she said. "Can you? I'll do it for you next time it's your turn."

"Oh, please, it's hardly going to take you a minute!" protested Canary.

"Well, then, why can't you?" Calibri insisted.

Canary just stared at her for a few seconds before turning around, making a small "alright", taking the black plastic bag leaning against the door and leaving.

Canary went up the stairs, irritated with her twin sister. The last thing she wanted to do right now was this. But then again, that was probably the way Calibri felt about it, too.

She was lost in thoughts when she dumped the bag into the trash bin and so she was completely unaware of the universe around her and unaware of the black SUV with tinted windows approaching her. In fact she was so lost in her own private little world she only noticed it when she was being dragged into it by force. She screamed. She wanted to call Calibri, but she immediately felt the rough cloth against her lips, and all she could make out was a muffled humming. She felt tears of shock and terror sting her eyes. She tried fighting the big, muscular arms gripping her, but it was no use. She felt like her brain became a great big pool of fear. But there was still one tiny place of sanity there, wondering. What was going to happen to her? Who were these people? What did they want? Was she only getting kidnapped, or was rape also a risk? Through eyes wide with fear she saw the SUV door close and she realized there was no escape. Suddenly the cloth against her mouth was gone and she could speak. "Take me back!" she shouted. The man who grabbed her appeared to be the only one there except for the driver. "What do you want?! Who are you?!" she screamed in panic, but with no effect. "Look," she said, struggling to calm down, "whoever you are, my family doesn't have much money so if you wanted ransom for me, you're not going to get it. Just take me back and I won't tell anything, I swear."

The man looked at her. His eyes show no pity, no mercy. But neither did they show cruelty or bloodlust, so she supposed it could have been worse. However, she understood her begging would do nothing, so she just sat there, trying to figure out a reason for anyone to kidnap her. By the time the vehicle finally stopped she still had nothing in mind.

The man who grabbed her opened the door and grabbed her again, pushing her out. She looked to see where she was. It wasn't the place she expected a teen-kidnapper to bring his victims. In fact, it wasn't the place she expected anyone to bring his victims. She looked around and discovered she was facing a tall, business-looking tower, and around her she could hear the sound of traffic. She was in the middle of London! She considered shouting again, but one glance at the man told her what the consequence would be. And besides, this was mid-London afternoon. No one would give a screaming girl a second thought even if she was heard.

The man who grabbed her pulled out a cell phone and made a call. He stood silent for a few seconds, waiting for the other line to pick up. Eventually he said, "We have her. Where to? I'm bringing her up now. Yes. No. She screamed but I don't think anyone saw us. I'm sure. Consider it done." He snapped the phone shut and put it in his pocket. He looked at Canary with the same emotionless eyes as before. "Walk," he told her, and she found herself walking into the building, the man right behind her.

"The boss asked for you specifically," said the man in an amused tone. "Guess you're really something special."

Canary said nothing. She refused to look at him and was staring forwards, not wanting to feel as if she was giving up by looking down.

"My God, you're dull," the man remarked at her, all amusement replaced with boredom. "Get in that lift over there."

Canary obeyed silently. He pressed the button marked LB – Lower Basement. Canary felt a lump in her throat, but was determined not to cry. She had no idea what was happening, but she was desperate not to show any weakness. The lift's doors closed shut and they were descending. Down and down they went, until the lift stopped and the doors opened. Canary couldn't see much. The room outside the lift was too dark to make out any features of anything, but she could notice a chair in the middle of the room and a man, standing there. Canary wondered if that was the boss the grabbing guy was talking about. She felt a slight push on her back and realized she had to get out of the lift. She walked into the room in small, hesitant steps. She heard the lift doors close behind her and turned to look. She realized she was the only one to leave the lift. She was alone in the dark room with the stranger.

"Sit," she heard him say. There was a familiar ring to his voice. She couldn't quite place it on anyone she knew, but it felt like she knew the voice. She walked over to the chair and sat down. Immediately she felt metal cuffs close on her wrists painfully. She let out a cry of surprise and pain and suddenly the lights were on. She looked up at the man in front of her. Earlier she thought she couldn't get any more shocked. She was wrong.

"Hello, Canary," he said with a smile. "It's been a while."

Canary wanted to run, to scream, to get out, anything just to get away. But she helplessly stuck in the chair. "How can you be here?" she heard herself say in a choked voice she scarcely recognized as her own. "You're not real. You're not real. YOU'RE NOT REAL!"

The man's smile just widened. "Now, don't be like that," he said as he approached her. Canary struggled to get out of the cuffs with all her might.

The Master kneeled to face her. "How is my sweet daughter?" he asked, and realization struck Canary like a bullet through the head as she screamed.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: I'm not late. You were just expecting it too early.**

"Before we do anything, you need to understand one thing," the Doctor began, but Calibri had no patience for him at the moment.

"We can't take her right now because that would cause a paradox and the only thing we can do is stay at the exact same spot but move ten years into the future to after you came to the club and get her."

The Doctor blinked, unhappy that Calibri stole his thunder. "Well, yeah."

"Good, now do your TARDIS-console-thingy and let's go!" said Calibri impatiently.

"Hang on," the Doctor insisted. "We need to figure out exactly what we're going to do."

Calibri rolled her eyes. "I just said! We go ten years into the future and take Canary! Now let's go!"

"It's not going to be that simple," said the Doctor.

"Well, we'll make do! Since when is planning so important to you anyway?"

"What do you mean?" asked the Doctor innocently. "I always plan."

"No, you always run after keep-out signs shouting 'look at me I'm a target'. That's not called planning; it's called being an idiot. And usually after you do idiotic things everything turns out alright, so let's go do something stupid like kidnapping my sister back from her original kidnappers."

"Alright, fine," the Doctor gave in. "But if anything goes wrong, don't blame me."

Calibri snorted. "Oh, please. Things always go wrong with you. You can't even eat cereal without it coming to life and trying to destroy the universe."

"It was _once_!"

"Twice."

"…shut up."

The Doctor started flipping and twisting and hitting and pushing at the console, and soon enough they were rattling about like then end of a rattlesnake's tail. When the rattling stopped Calibri was the first up to her feet and was running towards the doors, ignoring the Doctor's protests about carefulness. Carefulness wasted precious time. It could wait.

Calibri looked around. She didn't know where she was, but she could hear the sound of traffic and people. The sound of life. She was facing a dirty, reddish-brown wall. She walked around the TARDIS to see they were in an alley of sorts. It didn't look like where they took Canary.

"Doctor," said Calibri to the Time Lord behind her, "it doesn't look like where they took Canary."

"I noticed," the Doctor agreed. "But it's the same place. I'm sure of it. It's been ten years. It's bound to be a bit different."

"But there was a door in here," insisted Calibri.

The Doctor shrugged, which Calibri found mainly irritating. She walked out of the alley to look at where they've been. She looked up, to where a skyscraper was looking down at her. "Doctor!" she called out. He was by her side in moments. "What?" he asked.

"Isn't that Canary Wharf?" she asked, pointing at the skyscraper.

The Doctor just stared at it for several seconds, not saying a word. Calibri could see the emotions on his face, in his eyes. The memories. Eventually he nodded.

"Thought so," Calibri muttered and walked inside, the Doctor following her.

The first thing she noticed as she walked in was a security camera that seemed to focus on them as they walked in. She walked away from the entrance, thinking the cameras where just fixed on it automatically, but it followed. Calibri stared at it, feeling almost angry. Nothing made any sense. Canary was kidnapped and suddenly Calibri was in Canary Wharf having a staring contest with a camera. She frowned.

"Doctor," Calibri said, "this camera's following me."

The Doctor looked up. "It's probably just pointed there all the time."

Calibri gave him an annoyed look. She made a circle around the unmanned reception desk, watching as the camera followed. When she returned to her spot next to the Doctor, he just stared at the camera and made a small, "Ah."

"It can't be random," Calibri said. "Nothing is ever random with you. And it's not like I have the face of a terrorist. Why is the camera following me around?"

As if to answer her question in a vague way, the camera turned away from Calibri and focused as far left as possible. It stayed there.

Calibri narrowed her eyes. "I think… I think someone wants us to go to the left."

Soon enough they found themselves following the camera's instructions, introduced to a new camera and given new instructions and again.

"It's so stupid," Calibri complained. "We shouldn't even be following them. We don't know who stands behind the cams. For all we know, it's Dalek Sec back from the dead."

"It's not Dalek Sec," said the Doctor unhelpfully.

"I know that," Calibri said. "But it makes no sense, any of it. Why Canary Wharf? Is it because her name's Canary or because your history here or what?"

"I don't know," said the Doctor.

"Neither do I, which makes it all so dumb. We're following _cameras._" She suddenly stopped. "Is that camera pointing at the lift?"

"Yeah," said the Doctor.

"But we won't know which floor we need to go to."

The person in charge of the cameras must have been pretty good at lip-reading, because the camera instantly moved and pointed down.

"Go down?" she asked, puzzled. "How down?"

The camera didn't move.

"Fine," Calibri murmured. "Down."

She pressed the button to call the lift. The silver metal doors opened instantly and they walked in. Calibri looked down at the buttons and hit LB. "Lower Basement is probably down enough, don't you think?" she asked the Doctor, trying to sound careless. But her voice trembled with anxiety.

The Doctor put a soothing hand at her shoulder. "We're going to find her. I promise."

"No!" Calibri snapped at him. "Don't promise that! You know you can't promise that! What if she's dead? Then you'll just have something more to feel guilty about even though it wouldn't be your fault if she is!"

The Doctor flinched slightly, but didn't remove his hand from Calibri's shoulder. He knew she was right. "Okay," he said quietly.

The lift stopped dead and the doors opened to reveal darkness. The Doctor's hand went from Calibri's shoulder to hold her own hand as she walked out of the lift in small, cautious steps. He followed her, alert and ready for anything.

Then the lights were suddenly on.

Calibri found herself shutting her eyes as hard as she possibly could. She blinked at least a dozen times to be able to open them normally, but still felt uncomfortable. But she wasn't going to let anyone see that, so she blinked a little more and stared ahead, at the blonde man in the suit she could never ever forget or fail to recognize. She felt the Doctor's hand clutch her own tightly.

"Doctor," said the man with a grin.

"Master," said the man holding her hand coldly.

"Hello, Koschei," said Calibri in the same tone the Doctor used.

The Master laughed. "Oh, she's good!" he declared, sounding actually impressed.

"What are you doing here?" asked the Doctor.

As much as Calibri understood the Doctor wanting to know how the Master was even alive, she honestly believed there were more important matters. "Where is my sister?" she asked furiously.

"Oh, is that what you're here for?" asked the Master innocently. "And I thought you just stopped by for some tea and a chat."

"It's been you all along," Calibri muttered angrily. "You took my sister away from me. What have you done to her? Is she even alive?"

The Master rolled his eyes dramatically. "Oh, she's alright, don't worry about her."

Calibri wasn't so convinced. "I'm not buying it," she declared. "You kidnap Canary and I finally find her after ten years and all you have to say is, 'she's alright'? I want to hear it from her. I want to hear my sister tell me she's 'alright'."

The Master's grin remained plastered to his face. "Very well. But how can you be sure I didn't force her to say she was alright and that I wasn't secretly abusing her?"

Calibri stared right at the Master's eyes and wanted to punch him in the face. Instead, she calmly replied, "I won't know what you forced her to say. But I will know if she lies."


End file.
